In President Trump’s telling, Dan Caine, the retired Air Pressure lieutenant basic whom he needs to be his subsequent chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Body of workers, made an affect on him when the 2 males first met in 2018.
The overall advised the president that the Islamic State used to be no longer so difficult and may well be defeated in every week, no longer two years as senior advisers predicted, Mr. Trump recounted in 2019.
And at a Conservative Political Motion Team assembly remaining 12 months, Mr. Trump stated that Basic Caine placed on a Make The us Nice Once more hat whilst assembly with him in Iraq.
On Friday, Mr. Trump stated he would nominate Basic Caine after firing Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., a four-star fighter pilot referred to as C.Q.
“These days, I’m venerated to announce that I’m nominating Air Pressure Lieutenant Basic Dan ‘Razin’ Caine to be the following Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Body of workers,” Mr. Trump stated in a message on Truth Social. “Basic Caine is an completed pilot, nationwide safety knowledgeable, a success entrepreneur, and a ‘warfighter’ with important interagency and particular operations enjoy.”
Basic Caine is a 1990 graduate of the Virginia Army Institute, the place he gained some extent in economics. He later were given a grasp’s stage in air battle on the American Army College.
An F-16 pilot with 150 fight flight hours, Basic Caine’s profession took him on an abnormal trail for a long run Air Pressure basic.
He used to be a White Area fellow on the Agriculture Division and a counterterrorism specialist at the White Area’s Place of birth Safety Council below President George W. Bush. He served in different extremely secretive intelligence and particular operations assignments, some in the US and a few out of the country.
Consistent with his army biography, Basic Caine used to be a part-time member of the Air Nationwide Guard from 2009 to 2016 and “a serial entrepreneur and investor.”
He used to be additionally an affiliate director for army affairs on the C.I.A. from 2021 to 2024, serving because the essential liaison to the Pentagon and dealing with the army on a number of extremely categorized methods and operations, former colleagues stated.
Whilst on the C.I.A. in 2023, he introduced a mirrored image about his time as the manager of guns and ways hooked up to the 121st Fighter Squadron at Andrews Air Pressure Base, in Washington’s Maryland suburbs, on September 11, 2001. After the terrorist assaults, fighter jets have been deployed over Washington for the primary time.
“We jumped within the airplanes and began them up,” Basic Caine recalled in a mirrored image on September 11 posted via the C.I.A. “As my airplane got here to existence, the turbines got here on-line, and the radios have been going ballistic. Other people at the emergency channels have been pronouncing, ‘Any one round Washington, D.C., will likely be shot down.’ I remembered considering to myself: ‘Wait. That’s me that will likely be taking pictures.’”
“The guns have been loaded on my aircraft so we’d have the 20-millimeter gun and two heat-seeking missiles,” he endured. “I used to be airborne for approximately 7.5 to eight hours that day.”
Mr. Trump’s recounting of the time he met Basic Caine has modified over the years. In his first identified public telling of the tale, at the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2019, he stated the 2 met all through his discuss with to Iraq.
“I stated, ‘What’s your title?’” Mr. Trump recalled. “‘Sir, my title is Razin.’”
“‘Raisin, just like the fruit?’” Mr. Trump stated he requested. “‘What’s your remaining title?’”
“‘Caine,’” Mr. Trump stated used to be the officer’s reaction. “‘Razin Caine.’”
That used to be when Mr. Trump stated the overall then advised him he may just defeat the Islamic State in every week.
“‘One week?’” Mr. Trump stated he requested incredulously. “‘I used to be advised two years!’”
“‘We’re most effective hitting them from a short lived base in Syria, however in the event you gave us permission, lets hit them from the again, from the facet, from in every single place, from the bottom you’re proper on presently, sir,’” Mr. Trump quoted him as pronouncing. “‘They received’t know what the hell hit them.’”
Mr. Trump additionally stated that Basic Caine advised him that his superiors got here from Washington however didn’t pay attention to their commanders within the box, and that “you’re the primary one to invite us our opinion.”
5 years later, Mr. Trump spoke about that interlude at any other CPAC assembly. This time, Mr. Trump stated Basic Caine promised that the Islamic State may well be defeated in 4 weeks, no longer one.
The president additionally added a brand new element, claiming that Basic Caine donned a MAGA hat, in spite of army pointers that active-duty troops will have to no longer put on political paraphernalia.
“‘I like you, sir. I believe you’re nice, sir. I’ll kill for you, sir,’” Mr. Trump stated Basic Caine stated. “Then he places on a Make The us Nice Once more hat,” Mr. Trump stated, giggling. “You’re no longer allowed to try this, however they did it.”
