Washington — President Trump claimed that his nominee for Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Caine, wore a MAGA hat as proof of loyalty, but Caine told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that this did not happen. Mr. Trump could have been talking about someone else, Caine speculated.
“For 34 years, I’ve upheld my oath of office and the responsibilities of my commission,” says Caine. “I went back and listened to those tapes and I think the president was actually talking about somebody else and I’ve never worn any political merchandise or said anything to that effect.”
At the 2024 Conservative Political Action Committee conference, Mr. Trump described meeting Caine and a sergeant in Iraq. He then recounted how one of them said, “I love you, sir.” Sir, I think you’re great. “I’d kill for you, sir.” They then put on “Make America Great Again” hats. “You’re not allowed to do that, but they did it.”
Caine told senators at his confirmation hearing that he has never worn a MAGA hat.
Mr. Trump mentioned Caine in the same social media post as he fired Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., who was less than two years into his four-year term as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Caine is an unusual choice in part because he retired last year and is a three-star general nominated for a role that requires previous service in a four-star position, such as joint chiefs or combatant commanders. According to the United States Code, the president has the authority to waive this requirement.
In announcing Caine’s nomination, President Trump stated, “Alongside Secretary Pete Hegseth, General Caine and our military will restore peace through strength, put America first, and rebuild our military.”
Caine was questioned throughout the hearing about the Signal chat, in which Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth shared operational details about strikes in Yemen.
“We should always preserve, we should always preserve the element of surprise and that should translate across every information domain and format, and never put our war fighters, uh, in any harm’s way,” Caine told the crowd.
He also stated that throughout his career, he has always provided “appropriate information through the appropriate channels.”
When pressed further about the chat, he stated that he wanted to remain silent because the Senate Armed Services Committee leaders had requested an investigation into the signal chat.
Prior to his nomination as chairman, Caine was the director of special programs for the Pentagon’s Special Access Program Central Office. As an F-16 pilot, he flew over 2,800 hours, including over 150 combat hours.
