by Fred Lucas
The Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s pick for chairman of the joint chiefs early Friday.
Trump’s nominee, retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine, was confirmed by a Senate vote of 60-25, which was bipartisan, but significantly less so than the Senate Armed Services Committee approved his advancement to the Senate floor by a vote of 23-4 earlier this month.
? CONFIRMED: Lt. Gen. Dan ‘Razin’ Caine as the 22nd Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff pic.twitter.com/vFA4RB8IoU— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 11, 2025
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., led opposition to his nomination.
With the confirmation, Caine is the nation’s highest ranking military officer in the government, and chief military adviser to both the president and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Congratulations to Dan “Razin” Caine on his confirmation in the Senate as the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Your leadership will be a welcomed/vital part of ensuring we return the Dept. of Defense back to the American warfighter. pic.twitter.com/TFmTrc6MUa— Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (@SecDef) April 11, 2025
“Congratulations to Dan ‘Razin’ Caine on his confirmation in the Senate as the next chairman of the joint Chiefs of staff,” Hegseth said in a post on X. “Your leadership will be a welcomed/vital part of ensuring we return the Dept. of Defense back to the American warfighter.”
Shortly after coming into office, Trump fired President Joe Biden’s joint chiefs chairman, Gen. Charles Q Brown, who critics said pushed diversity, equity, and inclusion policies in the military. In his first term, Trump tapped Brown to lead the Air Force.
Brown’s predecessor, Gen. Mark Milley, was under a cloud of controversy after reports that before and after the 2020 election he spoke on the phone with his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Li Zuocheng. Milley tried to assure the Chinese general that Trump would not order an attack on China, but said if there was an attack, he would alert his counterpart ahead of time. This prompted calls for Milley’s resignation, but Biden kept him in the job until 2023.
Here are seven things to know about the new chairman of the joint chiefs.
1. Relationship With Trump
Trump has talked about “Razin” Caine at rallies for several years.
The two met during Trump’s trip to Iraq to visit troops. Trump first recounted the meeting during his 2019 speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, according to the White House transcript.
However, the transcript said “Raisin,” while social media posts from Trump, the White House, and the Pentagon have said “Razin.”
Trump said Caine introduced himself with the nickname “Razin.”
“Raisin, like the fruit?” Trump recalled asking. Then imitating Caine, Trump said, “He goes, ‘Yes, sir, Razin.’”
Trump then asked, “What’s your last name?” The general replied, “Caine. Razin Caine.”
“I said, ‘You got to be kidding me,’” Trump said.
Trump said the general told him the Islamic State, the terrorist group also known as ISIS, could be defeated in one week.
“One week? I was told two years,” a surprised Trump remembered asking.
He said Caine replied, “You’re the first one to ask us our opinion.”
Trump said, “So I went back, and I said, ‘I’m going to get back to you soon, Razin. I think you’re great. I like you, Razin Caine.’”
NPR reported that in Caine’s retelling, he told Trump it would take four weeks to defeat ISIS rather than one.
2. Fighter Pilot
Caine has been a fighter pilot, flying F-16 jet fighters. He served in Kuwait and Iraq.
While he was a command pilot, he logged more than 2,800 hours in the F-16, according to the Air Force. That included more than 150 combat hours.
From May 2018 to September 2019, he was the deputy commander in the U.S. campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
When he nominated him in February, Trump posted on Truth Social: “General Caine is an accomplished pilot, national security expert, successful entrepreneur, and a ‘warfighter’ with significant interagency and special operations experience.”
3. Sept. 11 and Bush Years
On Sept. 11, 2001, the day of the worst terrorist attack in American history, Caine was among the military pilots who flew above Washington, D.C., in the immediate aftermath to patrol the skies. This was the first time fighter jets were deployed for possible defense purposes in the nation’s capital.
“To have the decision to shoot down an airliner resting solely on a bunch of young folks in a combat air patrol—that had never happened before,” Caine recalled in a 2023 video posted on the CIA website.
“I remember telling the wingman that I was going to fly with that day, ‘Don’t shoot anybody. I’ll make the decision,’” because 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, not only for the people on the ground, but for the country as a whole,” Caine continued.
During the administration of President George W. Bush, Caine served on the White House’s Homeland Security Council, the predecessor to the Department of Homeland Security.
4. Biden Administration and CIA
In November 2021, Caine became the associate director of military affairs at the Central Intelligence Agency.
This was in the CIA’s Special Access Program Central Office at the Pentagon
5. Three-Star General
Caine was seen as an unusual choice in part because he is a three-star general.
The job requires being a four-star general or being a joint chiefs vice chair, being a chief of staff for one of the branches of the armed services, or to be the head of combatant command. However, a president can waive the four-star requirement, which Trump did.
6. Education
Caine was commissioned in 1990 through the ROTC program at the Virginia Military Institute. He also has a master of arts in air warfare from the American Military University.
He completed national security and leadership courses at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and at Syracuse University Maxwell School’s Program on National Security.
7. National Guard and Private Sector
From 2009-2016, Caine was a part-time member of the National Guard. During those years, he was also an entrepreneur and investor.
Caine also was on the advisory board of several venture capital firms, including a defense and space exploration company, Voyager.
