President Donald Trump’s pick to be chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff refused to lie for the president and instead threw his prospective boss under the bus at a confirmation hearing.
Retired Lt. Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine told a Senate committee on Tuesday morning he was not wearing a red MAGA hat when he first met Trump in Iraq in 2018—despite the president claiming he was.
“For 34 years, I’ve upheld my oath of office and my commitment to my commission,” Caine told Sen. Roger Wicker, a Republican, according to Politico. “And I have never worn any political merchandise.”
That explanation, if true, would mean the president’s assertion—that Caine told him he loves him and that he would “kill for you, sir”—before slapping on a MAGA cap, is a bunch of bull.
Instead, the president’s Joint Chiefs pick told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he suspects Trump did have that interaction that day, but it was with someone else at Al Asad air base.
“I went back and listened to those tapes, and I think the president was actually talking about somebody else,” Caine said. “And I’ve never worn any political merchandise or said anything to that effect.”
That is not how Trump remembers the meeting.
The president told the Conservative Political Action Conference last year that it was Caine who donned a MAGA hat when they met—as did hordes of other U.S. troops he met shortly after in an aircraft hanger.
“Then he puts on a Make America Great Again hat,” Trump recalled of Caine during their 2018 meeting. “You’re not allowed to do that, but they did. I remember, I went into the hangar and there were a lot—there were hundreds of troops. And they’re not supposed to do this, but they all put on the Make America Great Again hat.”
Service members are bound by the U.S. Constitution to remain nonpolitical, which includes a strict ban on them wearing apparel that supports one party or the other.
Sen. Wicker, whose question elicited Caine’s contradiction to the president, said he still feels Caine can advise the president “without bias” in his new role.
Caine was picked by Trump to replace Charles “CQ” Brown Jr., who the president canned on Feb. 22 as part of a larger military purge Politico described as “unprecedented.” Also axed then was Chief of Naval Operations Lisa Franchetti, Air Force Vice Chief Gen. James Slife, and the top lawyers in the Army, Navy, and Air Force.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had previously called for Brown’s firing over his promotion of diversity, equity, and inclusion policies in the military.
Brown, 63, was promoted to be a four-star general in 2018, during Trump’s first term. He is the son of a 30-year Army veteran who retired a colonel, and is the grandson of a World War II veteran who served in the Pacific Theater.
Trump did not badmouth Brown after his firing, as he did for other perceived foes he had axed after returning to office.
“I want to thank General Charles ‘CQ’ Brown for his over 40 years of service to our country, including as our current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “He is a fine gentleman and an outstanding leader, and I wish a great future for him and his family.”
