President Trump’s nominee to lead the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Lieutenant General Dan Caine, pushed back Tuesday on the president’s own claims that he wore a Make America Great Again hat while he was serving in uniform. The nominee to serve as his chief military advisor was chosen after the president took the rare step of firing the previous Joint Chiefs chairman. 

General Caine — a 34-year veteran of the Air Force — told senators on Tuesday that he would always be impartial in giving the president military advice, and that his top priority would be serving members of the military.

In a post on Truth Social announcing his nomination, the president described General Caine as “an accomplished pilot, national security expert, successful entrepreneur, and a ‘warfighter’ with significant interagency and special operations experience.”

General Caine is the most unusual nominee to lead the Joint Chiefs in recent memory, considering he retired in 2024 and has led neither a service branch nor a combatant command, the typical stepping stones for the position to which he has been nominated.

General Caine is also a three-star general, meaning he — if confirmed — will be the first Joint Chiefs chairman in history to not reach the four-star general officer rank. 

General Caine is replacing the previous Joint Chiefs chairman, General C.Q. Brown after the president dismissed him from his position in February. for his service. Conservatives had long derided the previous chairman, an Air Force operator, for pushing so-called “DEI” policies in the military. 

Mr. Trump met General Caine first in 2018 during a trip to Iraq, when the Air Force officer was still serving in uniform. Speaking to the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2019, Mr. Trump recounted meeting “Razin’ Caine,” a nickname referring to the Biblical story of Caine meant to reflect the officer’s aggressive leadership style. 

The president, however, thought General Caine was actually named “Raisin Caine.”

“What the hell kind of a name? I said, ‘Raisin? Like the fruit?’ He goes, ‘Yes, sir. Razin,’” the president said during the 2019 speech. 

Appearing at CPAC in 2024, Mr. Trump again recounted meeting General Caine, though added new details about the encounter as he recalled them. “This is where I met General Raisin Caine,” the president said last year, referring to the 2018 Iraq trip. Mr. Trump claimed that the general told him, “I love you, sir. I think you’re great, sir. I’ll kill for you, sir.”

“He puts on a Make America Great Again hat,” the president then claimed. “You’re not allowed to do that, but they did it.” 

General Caine himself pushed back on those claims at his confirmation hearing on Tuesday, however, saying that he would “never” do such a thing. “Sir, for 34 years, I’ve upheld my oath of office and my commitment to my commission, and I’ve never worn any political merchandise,” the general told the chairman of the committee, Senator Wicker.