How retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan Caine became Trump’s pick for Joint Chiefs chairman

The retired Air Force general announced as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by President Donald Trump after the abrupt Friday night firing of his predecessor is a respected career F-16 pilot who is described by current and former officials who served with him as a professional with a “strong moral center.”

The retired Air Force general announced as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by President Donald Trump after the abrupt Friday night firing of his predecessor is a respected career F-16 pilot who is described by current and former officials who served with him as a professional with a “strong moral center.” John Dan “Razin” Caine, who was first noticed by Trump in 2018 for his involvement in the fight against ISIS, has spent much of his career working in special operations and with the intelligence community and is mild-mannered, humble and apolitical, the officials said. He has long flown under the radar given the highly classified nature of his work — and he preferred it that way, the officials said. “There is a little bit of a narrative out there that he was picked because he’s a partisan guy,” a military official who served with Caine and has known him for over a decade told CNN. “In my personal experience and professional experience, I’ve never seen any indication that, and knowing him, he’s never been partial to any political party or mentioned anything about politics in our time together.” Caine, who retired in December as a three-star lieutenant general, was thrust into the center of a political firestorm when Trump abruptly announced Friday that he would replace Gen. Charles Q. Brown, who had served as Joint Chiefs chairman since October 2023. It’s rare for a retired general to be recalled to active service, but it has happened before. Army Gen. Peter Schoomaker, for example, was recalled to become Army chief of staff in 2003. It’s also highly unusual for a three-star general to receive their fourth star upon being elevated to chair, the country’s most senior military officer. Past chairmen have received their fourth star by first leading a combatant command or serving as a service chief before becoming the US’ top general and principal military adviser to the president.