Dan Caine: Trump’s favourite general lined up for top military job after President fires senior military officers - who is he?

Retired Lt. Gen. Dan Caine is up for becoming the the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It highlights a long-standing fascination that President Donald Trump has held for the military leader.

Their connection appears to trace back to a 2018 meeting in Iraq, a moment that seemingly left a lasting impression on the president. During a 2019 speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump recounted his first encounter with Caine.

Then serving as the deputy commander of a special operations task force combating ISIS, Caine reportedly told the president that the militant group could be eradicated within a week. This bold assertion, it seems, resonated with Trump. Since then, he has retold the story about how he met “Razin” Caine multiple times.

Caine, a retired F-16 pilot, could be promoted to four-star general. He will then have to undergo a potentially gruelling Senate confirmation process to get a four-year term as the uniformed head of the nation’s military.

Earlier this year Caine described on a podcast how as a young man he wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father, a fighter pilot. He graduated in 1990 from the Virginia Military Institute with a bachelor’s degree in Arts and Economics.

Caine, who flew more than 2,800 hours in the F-16, was one of the pilots tasked with protecting Washington on September 11, 2001, when al Qaeda hijackers slammed commercial jets into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center in New York City. Caine realized he might have to shoot down a hijacked plane if one crossed his path.

According to his official Air Force biography, Caine was a part-time member of the National Guard and “a serial entrepreneur and investor” from 2009 to 2016. He was most recently the associate director for military affairs at the Central Intelligence Agency, before his retirement late last year.

But it was his time in Iraq from 2018 to 2019 that helped him gain Trump’s attention. Caine’s name coming into the spotlight comes as Donald Trump has purged top military figures in the Pentagon, including firing America's most senior commander.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General CQ Brown - America's highest-ranking general and only the second black general to serve as chairman - was fired with immediate effect. The president will also replace the head of the US Navy, a position held by Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead a military service, and the Air Force vice chief of staff, the Pentagon said. He is also removing the judge advocates general for the Army, Navy and Air Force, critical positions that ensure enforcement of military justice.