Following Friday's firing of Charles "CQ" Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, President Donald Trump has nominated Dan Caine, a retired U.S. Air Force three-star lieutenant general who previously claimed ISIS could be defeated in one week, to become the next chairman.
Newsweek has reached out to U.S. Department of Defense via email for comment on Saturday.
Why It Matters
Since taking office last month, Trump has implemented sweeping change amid swathes of executive orders, some of which impacted the U.S. military, with the most recent military leadership shakeup being seen as unprecedented.
It comes as Trump has also had an icy history with retired U.S. Army General Mark Milley, his former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, during his first term, which was marked by tension on key issues leading the president to publicly bash Milley.
If approved by the U.S. Senate, Caine will serve an important role as the nation deals with adversaries and conflicts around the world.
What To Know
In a post to Truth Social on Friday, Trump announced the removal of Brown, a four-star Air Force general, and nominated Caine to be the next Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman.
"Today, I am honored to announce that I am nominating Air Force Lieutenant General Dan 'Razin' Caine to be the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. General Caine is an accomplished pilot, national security expert, successful entrepreneur, and a "warfighter" with significant interagency and special operations experience," he wrote.
Caine's nomination comes after he worked with Trump during his first term and the president said he was "instrumental in the complete annihilation of the ISIS caliphate."
However, Trump's relationship with Caine, 56, dates back to their first meeting in Iraq in 2018 where Caine, then deputy commander of a special operations task force fighting ISIS, told Trump that the Islamic State could be defeated in a week, not two years as senior advisers predicted.
Trump has since recounted the exchange at rallies and speeches for years, most recently at Miami's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) conference, according to Reuters.
"He's a real general, not a television general," Trump said at CPAC.
However, the nomination comes as Caine's military resume has been notably different from those of past Joint Chiefs of Staff chairmen as he has never led a combatant command or military branch—traditional steppingstones to the role. Instead, his career has spanned operational commands, a stint as a policy adviser in Washington.
While the federal law requires the president to pick the top military officers from the combatant commands or the chiefs of the military services, all of which are 4-star positions, the law also allows the president to waive the requirement if "such action is necessary in the national interest."
Concerns remain as Brown's removal has led to backlash from several Democrats, criticizing the move as an effort to politicize the military.
Representative Seth Moulton, a Massachusetts Democrat, called out Trump on X, formerly Twitter: "Dictators or wannabe kings fire generals who don't agree with their politics. This isn't a banana republic. What Trump and Hegseth are doing is un-American, unpatriotic. It's definition of politicizing our military, and we should expect to see loyalty oaths (not to the Constitution) and worse coming soon."
Who Is Dan Caine?
Caine's military journey began long before his first encounter with Trump.
Inspired by his father, a fighter pilot, Caine graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 1990. He went on to fly more than 2,800 hours in the F-16, including a mission on September 11, 2001, when he scrambled to intercept potentially hijacked aircraft over Washington.
Between 2005 and 2016, Caine held roles at the Department of Agriculture and the White House Homeland Security Council before serving as the Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) associate director for military affairs.
According to his official Air Force biography, Caine was a part-time member of the National Guard and "a serial entrepreneur and investor" from 2009 to 2016. But it was his 2018-2019 Iraq deployment that put him on Trump's radar.
According to The New York Times, citing former colleagues, Caine was also an associate director for military affairs at the CIA from 2021 to 2024, serving as the principal liaison to the Pentagon and working with the military on several highly classified programs and operations.
According to Reuters, last month Caine joined a venture capital firm known as Shield Capital. His LinkedIn profile showed that starting last month, he was also associated with two other investment firms.
What People Are Saying
President Donald Trump said in his Truth Social post on Friday: "Alongside Secretary Pete Hegseth, General Caine and our military will restore peace through strength, put America First, and rebuild our military."
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in a statement on Friday, in part: "This evening the President announced that he intends to nominate Lieutenant General Dan 'Razin' Caine, USAF, for the position of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the nation's highest-ranking military officer, and the principal military advisor to the President, Secretary of Defense, and National Security Council.
"General Caine embodies the warfighter ethos and is exactly the leader we need to meet the moment. I look forward to working with him. The outgoing Chairman, Gen. Charles 'CQ' Brown, Jr., USAF, has served with distinction in a career spanning four decades of honorable service. I have come to know him as a thoughtful adviser and salute him for his distinguished service to our country," Hegseth said.
Concluding, Hegseth added, "Under President Trump, we are putting in place new leadership that will focus our military on its core mission of deterring, fighting and winning wars."
Michael McFaul, U.S. ambassador to Russia under former President Barack Obama, wrote on X, "This is just awful. I have had the honor of working with and meeting many Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs over the decades. General CQ Brown was one the finest of them all, especially suited for the challenges of our current era of great power competition with China."
Former Democratic Senate candidate Amy McGrath posted to X: "There is no reason to fire the CJCS other than Trump's desire to politicize the military. This weakens our country."
What Happens Next?
Trump said in his social media post that he has requested Hegseth to solicit nominations for additional high-level positions that will be announced soon.
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