Washington — President Trump has claimed his pick to serve as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Caine donned a MAGA hat as proof of loyalty, but Caine told the Senate Armed Services committee on Tuesday that never happened. Mr. Trump may have been speaking about someone else, Caine said.
“For 34 years, I’ve upheld my oath of office and the responsibilities of my commission,” Caine said. “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 recounted meeting Caine and a sergeant in Iraq. He then recounted that one of them said, “‘I love you, sir. I think you’re great, sir. I’ll kill for you, sir.'” and then they put on Make America Great Again hats. “You’re not allowed to do that, but they did it.”
Caine told senators during his confirmation hearing that he has never worn a MAGA hat.
Mr. Trump tapped Caine in the same social media post in which he fired Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. who was less than two years into his four-year term as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Caine is an unconventional pick in part because he retired last year and is a three-star general nominated to a role that requires previous service in a four star position such as one of the joint chiefs or combatant commanders. The president can waive this requirement, according to U.S. code.
Mr. Trump, in announcing Caine’s nomination said, “Alongside Secretary Pete Hegseth, General Caine and our military will restore peace through strength, put America First, and rebuild our military.”
Caine faced questions 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 said.
He also said he has always put “proper information in the proper channels” during his career.
When asked further about the chat, he said he wanted to withhold comment since the leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee have requested an investigation into the signal chat.
Before his nomination to be chairman, Caine most recently served as the director of special programs for the Pentagon’s Special Access Program Central Office. As an F-16 pilot, he logged more than 2,800 hours, including more than 150 combat hours.
Editor’s note: This story has been edited to better reflect Mr. Trump’s 2024 comments.
