President Donald Trump nominated Air Force Lieutenant General Dan "Razin" Caine to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff last month. (U.S. Air Force)
Caine first caught the eye of the president years ago, when he was among a group of military leaders who met with Trump in December 2018 at the Al Asad Airbase in Iraq.
Trump was visiting to deliver a Christmas message and hear from commanders on the ground. There, Caine told Trump they could defeat ISIS quickly with a surge of resources and a lifting of restrictions on engagement – a different message than the president was getting back in Washington.
"We’re only hitting them from a temporary base in Syria," Trump said Caine told him. "But if you gave us permission, we could hit them from the back, from the side, from all over – from the base that you’re right on, right now, sir. They won’t know what the hell hit them."
Trump had plucked the retired Air Force general from relative obscurity after accusing Brown of pushing a "woke" agenda at the Pentagon. Brown had been behind a 2022 memo laying out diversity goals for the Air Force.
Caine does not meet the position's prerequisites, such as being a combatant commander or service chief, and will require a waiver to be confirmed to the position.
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President Donald Trump relieved Gen. C.Q. Brown, a former President Joe Biden holdover whose term was not yet up, from the Joint Chiefs chairman job last month. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)
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If confirmed, he would be tasked with providing the president with military advice at a time when Trump has toyed with bombing Iran and the Pentagon is shoring up its capabilities to ensure America is capable of winning a hypothetical war with China.
The Pentagon is also in the midst of a major modernization push to integrate AI across its systems and will soon take up the monumental task of putting a "Golden Dome" over the U.S. homeland. It is currently trying to whittle down its civilian workforce by more than 50,000 people and identify waste in the agency with the largest budget.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trumps-nominee-top-military-officer-daniel-razin-caine-face-questioning-senate