The election of President Donald Trump last week to appoint Lieutenant General Dan “Razin” Caine as his election to be chairman of the Chiefs General of the Staff, marks the unexplored territory for the military.
Caine, a retired three -star Air Force General, does not meet the legal requirements to serve as the country’s senior military officer because, unlike his predecessor Charles “CQ” Brown, he never served as Vice President of the Common Staff Chiefs, the head of a service branch, or the commander of a unified war command.
A renunciation will have to be given to serve Caine in position, but other issues also approach. The relationship of the military general with Trump and the business links with his family are creating concerns about his appointment, told experts of the military.com, and former officer classmates fear the uncertain position their colleague can be put by the president.
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Caine’s name comes after the controversial Brown fire and other high service officials this month, making five former secretaries of defense including Lloyd Austin and Jim Mattis to release a letter this week urgently seeking congressional hearing for the issue – and a hold on the appointment of Caine until it happens.
“The house and the Senate should demand that the administration justify any fire and fully explain why it violated the Congress’s legislative purpose for the President of the Joint Staff to complete a four -year term in office. “Meanwhile, senators must refuse to confirm any new appointment of the Department of Defense, including that of retired general Dan Caine as the next chairman of the Common Chiefs of Staff.”
Army.com reached Caine for comment on Friday, but did not receive an immediate response.
Caine would be the first Air National Career Guard officer to be chairman of the Common Chiefs of Staff, according to the National Guard of the United States, a nonprofit lobbying on behalf of the reserve.
If you give up a waiver and confirmed, Caine would also be the third guard that would get the highest ranks of the new administration. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was a national military guard, and Michael Waltz, a former Congressman and Special Forces of the Colonel Retired Army, is serving as Trump’s national security adviser.
“We look forward to working with another elderly official of Pentagon who understands the mortality and efficiency that the guard brings to the war,” Major General Francis McGinn, the president, said in a statement. “Our community is ready and ready to play a critical role in the implementation of peace through the strength and support of the denial strategy.”
Caine began as an F-16 Fighting Pilot Falcon at the base of the Siracuse Air National Guard, New York, according to a copy of his service biography, and had numerous guard tasks throughout his career for three decades. His most recent task was as Associated Director for Military Milites in the CIA.
But between 2018 and 2019, he also served as Deputy Commander -in -Chief of the US Central Command Special Operations Component and Special Operations Task Force for operation
“I look forward to working with him, and he will give direct advice, as President Trump did for losing ISIS,” Hegseth said in a recent Fox News interview, adding “the president respects the leaders who connect the fighters in a very dangerous world. I think Dan Caine’s the man meets at the moment.”
Links to Kushners
In addition to being an unusual choice for his resume – his military experience does not meet the criteria for the post of mayor as defined by law – Caine is also retired.
Caine, which is described in his official biography of the Air Force as “a serial and investor entrepreneur”, immediately joined the boards of some companies and investment firms when he retired that can lead to conflicts while he reconstructs the army.
According to his LinkedIn profile, starting in January 2025, Caine became a member of several venture capital firms, including Voyager Space, Shield Capital and Thrive Capital.
According to their websites, both Voyager and Shield are focused on national security space and technologies – large areas of growth for the military.
Meanwhile, Thrive Capital is an investment firm led by Joshua Kushner, Jared Kushner’s younger brother, Trump’s son -in -law and one -time adviser.
While Jared does not appear to be involved in Trump’s second administration, the couple’s father, Charles Kushner, has been appointed to serve as Ambassador to France after making one of the biggest donations to the Trump political action “Make America again Inc.” in 2023.
Concerns about industry connections are not new. They have been part of the discussion for Pentagon civilian leaders – namely the Secretaries of Defense – going again many administrations.
The spokesmen for the joint bosses refused to comment on Caine’s links with Kushner’s family, directing the comment in the office of the Secretary of Defense and the White House. Nor did he respond with the time of publication.
Craig Holman, a lobbyist of government affairs with the public citizen, a nonprofit for the protection of supervision, told Military.com that “there has always been a problem, especially with military and military contracts – retired generals moving in positions on companies that then secure military contracts.”
However, the appointment of Caine will now bring those concerns to the military.
“The extension of this type of conflict of interest this time is unprecedented,” Holman told the military. “We’ve never seen him go so far.”
“All this is very, very worrying, both in terms of current conflicts of interest and the lack of ability of many of these names, not only in the army, by the way, but in all, throughout the executive branch,” he said.
‘Brother Rats’
Caine began his military career after graduating in 1990 at the Virginia Military Institute, or VMI, one of the country’s high military colleges. A day after Trump announced it as Brown’s replacement, Alma Mater and Caine issued a news notice congratulating the retired officer on his appointment.
Graduates of the Virginia Military Institute told the military that they had great admiration for Caine, but feared the circumstances in which he was appointed to serve as the president’s senior military adviser.
The Southern Military College is a nearby group. As first students, students often call each other “Rats Brother”, a term is often used to explain the close ties that students form during their first difficult year at the Military Institute of Virginia.
“I have known some of the world’s greatest people in Rats Brother Rats. We have spent the good and the bad, but we have always come together,” Caine wrote in his 1990s book, which was read by the army.com. “Closing this seems so strange. I don’t want to thank VMI because I don’t know what it has done to me yet.”
Finnie Coleman, a professor at the University of New Mexico, a former Army officer and Caine’s classmate, told Miltiary.com that he was a commander of the company in VMI with Caine.
While Coleman explained that he was very proud of his classmate, he also noted that “the possibility of a life of his brother Rat comes under circumstances that are not ideal.”
“I couldn’t be more torn,” Coleman told military.com. “The good news is that Dan has tremendous interpersonal integrity, and my hope is that integrity will be paired with the courage that it should do the right thing from our army, which I think means being able to be true with the president, but also be faithful to our bodies.”
A person acquainted with Caine in VMI, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Army.com that other classmates have also raised concerns about the circumstances of the appointment of graduates.
“I have my doubts as to why he was chosen,” VMI collaborator told the military.com. “I am wondering if it is because they think he will remove the Trump administration water, or make their offers.”
Former Caine’s associate added that classmates had the discussion: “” Do we think that if he should push back, he will be ready to do it? “I don’t know the answer to this question.
Trump has made his admiration for Caine known. In 2019 at the Conservative Conference of Political Action, known as CPAC, he recalled the meeting with the officer and, after talking about it, said, “I just made it a great star.”
In 2024, again at the CPAC, Trump recalled a Caine interaction in which he allegedly expressed ardent loyalty to the president.
“” Yes, sir. I love you, sir. I think you are great, sir. I will kill for you, sir, “” Trump recalled that Caine supposedly saying. “Then he puts on a brilliant US hat.”
Some media reports have questioned the authenticity of Trump’s history.
“I’ve never seen anything in VMI that would tell me Dan Caine is an ideologue, but I know most of my brother’s mice are passionate conservatives,” Coleman said.
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