President Trump announced he would nominate retired Air Force Lt. Gen. John Dan "Razin" Caine — a career fighter jet pilot who patrolled the skies above Washington, D.C., during the 9/11 attacks, served in the Middle East during the fight against the Islamic State and then worked at the CIA — to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the nation's highest-ranking military officer, as well as the principal military adviser to the president, secretary of defense and National Security Council.
Caine was an unusual choice for the top military job and is not well known. Several officials on Capitol Hill and the Pentagon, granted anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, told NPR they had to Google his name.
Caine has not served in any of the roles — Joint Chiefs vice chairman, chief of staff for one of the branches of the armed service, or head of a combatant command — that nominees are legally required to have performed in order to be nominated. The president, however, may waive those requirements if he "determines such action is necessary in the national interest."
The nomination is part of a larger shake-up at the Pentagon.
It follows the firing on Friday night of the previous chairman, Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., who was picked by former President Joe Biden in 2023.
Brown was accused of supporting a "woke" agenda by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. In his book The War on Warriors, Hegseth questioned whether Brown, who is Black, got the job because of his race.
In a statement, Hegseth said Brown's replacement represents "the warfighter ethos" that the country needs right now — later adding that the nation needs leadership that "will focus our military on its core mission of deterring, fighting and winning wars."
Trump, in his nomination announcement, described Caine as "an accomplished pilot, national security expert, successful entrepreneur and a 'warfighter' with significant interagency and special operations experience."
The president said Caine was "passed over for promotion" by Biden.
Caine was among the pilots tasked with protecting D.C. on 9/11
Caine served most recently as the associate director for military affairs at the CIA, a position he started in November 2021.
In 1990, Caine was commissioned through an ROTC program at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Va. While on active duty, Caine primarily served as an F-16 fighter pilot, flying more than 150 combat hours, according to his military biography.
On Sept. 11, 2001, he was one of the pilots who protected the skies above Washington following the terrorist attacks. It marked the first time that fighter jets were deployed over the nation's capital.
"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," he said in a 2023 CIA video.
"Not only for the people on the ground, but for the country as a whole."
From 2009 to 2016, Caine also served in the National Guard.
He was deputy commander in the U.S. campaign against ISIS in Iraq and Syria between May 2018 and September 2019, according to his military biography.
The biography also describes him as a "serial entrepreneur and investor."
According to his LinkedIn profile, Caine serves on the advisory board of several venture capital firms, as well as the defense and space exploration company Voyager.
Trump has been talking up Caine since at least 2019
In 2019, at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump shared his first meeting with Caine in Iraq, where the general introduced himself by his nickname "Razin."
"'Raisin, like the fruit?' He goes, 'Yes, sir, Razin.' 'What's your last name?' 'Caine. Razin Caine.' I said, 'You got to be kidding me,'" Trump recalled.
According to Trump, the general suggested the Islamic State could be defeated in a week. "One week? I was told two years," Trump said he asked. Caine explained that the issue was that his orders come from D.C. rather than being informed by the field.
"You're the first one to ask us our opinion," Caine told Trump, as the president recalled. "So I went back and I said, 'I'm going to get back to you soon, Razin. I think you're great,'" Trump said. "I like you, Razin Caine."
Trump referred to this encounter in Iraq again at last year's CPAC. But in this retelling, Caine asserted that the Islamic State could be defeated in four weeks, not one.
Trump then recalled the general saying, "'I love you, sir. I think you're great, sir. I'll kill for you, sir.'"
Caine did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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