Dan Caine: Trump's surprise pick for Joint Chiefs, but their connection dates back to Iraq

Retired Air Force Lieutenant General Dan Caine is President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Trump announced his decision Friday night on Truth Social.

When Trump met Caine

Caine met Trump during a 2018 trip to Iraq while serving as deputy commander of a special operations task force fighting ISIS. Trump recounted at a 2019 conference that Caine told him ISIS could be defeated in a week.

Trump has repeatedly praised Caine since, calling him a “real general, not a television general” in Miami on Wednesday. If confirmed by the Senate, Caine would replace Air Force General C.Q. Brown, whom Trump recently dismissed. Caine would also receive a promotion to four-star general.

Caine's career path

Caine’s career path is unusual for a Joint Chiefs chairman. He hasn’t led a combatant command or military branch. Trump claimed Caine was “passed over for promotion by Sleepy Joe Biden. But not anymore!”

Caine’s early ambition was to become a fighter pilot like his father. “We started moving around as a kid. So I felt like this was something that I really, really, really wanted to do, was fly jets in the Air Force,” Caine said in a podcast interview. He graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 1990.

As an F-16 pilot, Caine was part of the air defense over Washington, D.C., on September 11, 2001. He recalled the possibility of having to shoot down a hijacked plane: “I was very mindful that if we made a mistake or if we got it wrong or if we missed somebody and we did not shoot, the consequences of that could be catastrophic.”

Caine’s career also includes positions at the Department of Agriculture, the White House Homeland Security Council, and the CIA. He served in the National Guard and was an entrepreneur and investor. He retired from the CIA late last year.

Caine’s time in Iraq

Caine’s time in Iraq from 2018-2019 garnered Trump’s attention. His nomination will face scrutiny about his political neutrality, particularly given Brown’s firing. A senior military official who has worked with Caine described him as putting “the mission and troops above politics. He is not a political guy.”

Trump has previously involved the military in political matters. He recently described an encounter with Caine where service members donned “Make America Great Again” hats: “They all put on the Make America Great Again hat. Not supposed to do it,” Trump said. “I said, 'you're not supposed to do that. You know that.' They said, 'It's OK, sir. We don't care.'"

With inputs from Reuters