Trump, pushing for new military leader, submits nomination of Dan ‘Razin’ Caine to the Senate
President Donald Trump moved the ball forward this week in his effort to get retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine installed as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff with a four-star rank.
The White House on Monday officially submitted Caine’s nomination to the Senate and it was referred to the Senate Armed Services Committee for consideration, according to a notice posted on Congress.gov. A confirmation hearing has not yet been announced.
If confirmed, Caine would become Trump’s top military adviser amid international conflicts and a major modernization push by the Defense Department to acquire new AI capabilities and other high-tech systems, as well as buy software and other tools more rapidly.
Last month, Trump fired Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown from his job as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and announced his intention to nominate Caine.
The president has praised Caine for his efforts to combat the ISIS terrorist group during his first administration.
“He’s a real general, not a television general,” Trump said during remarks at an investment summit in Miami last month before he announced his plan to bring Caine out of retirement and remove Brown. “We have the greatest military in the world, but we don’t have the greatest top, top leadership.”
Trump also fired Adm. Lisa Franchetti as chief of naval operations on the same day that Brown was fired.
Caine, a Virginia Military Institute graduate and former F-16 fighter pilot, held a variety of roles during his military career. His last assignment was associate director for military affairs at the CIA, which ended in December 2024, according to his Air Force bio.
“General Caine embodies the warfighter ethos and is exactly the leader we need to meet the moment. I look forward to working with him,” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said in a statement after Trump announced his selection.
After his recent retirement from the military, Caine became chairman of the national security advisory board at Voyager Space, a venture partner at Shield Capital, an advisor for Thrive Capital and a venture partner at Ribbit Capital, according to his LinkedIn bio.
According to his Air Force bio, he was a part-time member of the National Guard from 2009 to 2016 and “a serial entrepreneur and investor.”
Trump’s selection of Caine — who was retired from the service and didn’t hold a four-star rank — for the U.S. military’s top post was an unconventional pick and came as a surprise to many. Trump will have to issue a waiver because Caine doesn’t meet the standard criteria to become chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
So far, the Republican-led Senate has generally approved Trump’s high-level nominees during his second term.
After Brown was fired and Trump announced that he wanted Caine to replace him, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., was asked during a Feb. 23 appearance on ABC News’ “This Week” if he had confidence in Caine.
“I do not know [Lt.] Gen. Caine. He will be subject, as the case, to careful review by the committee. There are obviously a great many questions that we’re going to raise with him, but I think we have to give him the opportunity to make his case and also to make clear that he is going to be willing to speak truth to power, willing to give his best military advice to the president, not just tell the president what he wants to hear — and also to be open and share with the Congress the facts on the ground, not be a political spokesperson for the president. So those are part of the issues that we’ll address as we go forward,” Reed said.
