President Trump's pick to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had to make an unusual denial at the start of his confirmation hearing before a Senate panel on Tuesday. Retired Lt. Gen. Dan "Razin" Caine told the Armed Services committee that he had not donned a MAGA hat in Iraq despite President Trump's claim to the contrary, reports Politico.
- "For 34 years, I've upheld my oath of office and my commitment to my commission," Caine told GOP. Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi. "And I have never worn any political merchandise." Watch the moment via PBS.
Trump has told the story multiple times in public, including at last year's CPAC conference, per an earlier story on the issue in Politico. "I'll kill for you, sir," Trump quoted the general as telling him in 2018, when Trump was visiting Iraq. "Then he puts on a Make America Great Again hat." If true, that would pose a problem for Caine to assume what is the nation's highest-ranking military position, one that could require him to provide "unvarnished military advice" to the president, per the New York Times.
But it isn't true, Caine said Tuesday. "I went back and listened to those tapes, and I think the president was actually talking about somebody else," he told the panel's top Democrat, Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island. "And I've never worn any political merchandise or said anything to that effect." (More Joint Chiefs of Staff stories.)
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