Dan Caine could not have been on Washington’s radar earlier than Friday night time.
However President Donald Trump’s fascination with the retired three-star common, his shock decide to change into the following chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Workers, seems to return to their first assembly in Iraq in 2018.
Caine, then the deputy commander of a particular operations job power combating Islamic State, advised the president that the militant group could possibly be destroyed in only a week, Trump recalled throughout a speech to the Conservative Political Motion Convention in 2019.
Since then, he has retold the story about how he met “Razin” Caine a number of instances – and the reward has solely grown extra effusive.
“He’s an actual common, not a tv common,” Trump mentioned in Miami on Wednesday, two days earlier than his Reality Social put up catapulted Caine from retirement to a nomination to be essentially the most senior active-duty officer within the U.S. navy.
If permitted by the Senate, Caine will take over a navy that’s present process change within the first 30 days of the Trump administration and can inherit a Joint Workers rattled by Trump’s shock firing of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Workers, Air Pressure Basic C.Q. Brown.
Caine, a retired F-16 pilot, might be promoted to four-star common, after which need to bear a doubtlessly grueling Senate affirmation course of to get a four-year time period because the uniformed head of the nation’s navy.
Simply final month, Caine joined a enterprise capital agency referred to as Defend Capital.
His LinkedIn profile confirmed that beginning final month, he was related to two different funding companies.
Unconventional Decide
Caine’s navy profession is a far cry from the standard path to changing into the president’s prime navy adviser.
Earlier generals and admirals have led a combatant command or a navy department of service.
Caine didn’t rise that prime within the ranks earlier than retirement.
In response to Trump, he was “handed over for promotion by Sleepy Joe Biden.”
“However not anymore!”, Trump wrote on Reality Social.
Earlier this 12 months, Caine described on a podcast how as a younger man he needed to comply with within the footsteps of his father, a fighter pilot.
“We began transferring round as a child. So I felt like this was one thing that I actually, actually, actually needed to do, was fly jets within the Air Pressure,” Caine mentioned.
He graduated in 1990 from the Virginia Navy Institute with a bachelor’s diploma in economics.
Caine, who flew greater than 2,800 hours within the F-16, was one of many pilots tasked with defending Washington on September 11, 2001, when al Qaeda hijackers slammed industrial jets into the Pentagon and the World Commerce Heart in New York Metropolis.
Caine realized he may need to shoot down a hijacked airplane if one crossed his path.
“I used to be very aware that if we made a mistake or if we obtained it unsuitable or if we missed any individual and we didn’t shoot, the results of that could possibly be catastrophic,” Caine, who has additionally flown the T-37 and T-38 plane, mentioned in an article posted on the CIA web site.
Caine held a variety of posts within the capital from 2005.
He was a particular assistant to the secretary on the Division of Agriculture after which coverage director for counterterrorism on the White Home’s homeland safety council.
In response to his official Air Pressure biography, Caine was a part-time member of the Nationwide Guard and “a serial entrepreneur and investor” from 2009 to 2016.
He was most not too long ago the affiliate director for navy affairs on the Central Intelligence Company, earlier than his retirement late final 12 months.
Nevertheless it was his time in Iraq from 2018 to 2019 that helped him acquire Trump’s consideration.
Caine might be below explicit scrutiny to make sure that he’s apolitical, a priority that was heightened by the Friday night time firing of Brown, a four-star common. Uniformed navy officers are imagined to be loyal to the U.S. Structure and impartial of any celebration or political motion.
A senior U.S. navy official who has labored with Caine for greater than a decade mentioned he would search to maintain the navy out of politics.
Caine “places the mission and troops above politics. He’s not a political man,” the official mentioned.
The official added that when Caine came upon he can be picked for the highest job by Trump, his first concern was that Brown was taken care of and handled with respect.
How far Cain can preserve the navy out of politics could largely depend upon Trump – who up to now has dragged the navy into partisan points.
In a latest re-telling of their first assembly in Iraq, Trump mentioned that Caine was within the hangar the place service members began placing on “Make America Nice Once more” hats.
“All of them placed on the Make America Nice Once more hat. Not imagined to do it,” Trump mentioned throughout a speech final 12 months.
“I mentioned, ‘you’re not supposed to try this. You recognize that.’ They mentioned, ‘It’s OK, sir. We don’t care.’”
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