Retired Lt. Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be the subsequent chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Workers, denied on Tuesday that he has ever worn a “Make America Nice Once more” hat or every other kind of political merchandise.
In at the very least one retelling of Caine and Trump’s first assembly in Iraq in 2018, the president has appeared to point Caine was sporting a pink MAGA hat, one thing that will not be allowed below navy guidelines.
The query was posed by some senators at Caine’s affirmation listening to earlier than the Senate Armed Companies Committee.
“Let me begin off by asking about some hyperbole which will have been on the market within the press,” Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., mentioned firstly of Tuesday’s listening to. “Gen. Caine, did you put on a MAGA hat in entrance of the president?”
“No, sir,” he responded.
He offered the identical reply when requested by Wicker, “Did you put on a MAGA hat at any time?”
Lt. Normal John D. Caine takes his seat as he arrives for a Senate Armed Companies Committee listening to on his nomination to be the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Workers on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on April 1, 2025.
Nathan Howard/Reuters
And when pressed by Wicker, Caine mentioned, “Sir, for 34 years, I’ve upheld my oath of workplace and my dedication to my fee, and I’ve by no means worn any political merchandise.”
When Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., the rating member on the committee, adopted up with the identical line of questioning, Caine answered, “As I discussed to the chairman, for 34 years, I’ve upheld my oath of workplace and within the duties of my fee.
“I feel I went again and listened to these tapes, and I feel the president was truly speaking about anyone else,” Caine mentioned. “And I’ve by no means worn any political merchandise or mentioned something to that impact.”
Trump’s story about how he first met Caine has developed through the years since he first talked about Caine throughout remarks on the Conservative Political Motion Convention in February 2019, shortly after his journey to Iraq the earlier yr.
Trump has repeatedly given Caine credit score for ending the battle towards the Islamic State and in his first recounting of their assembly famous how Caine turned memorable to him for saying that ISIS could possibly be destroyed in weeks by shortly putting strongly at its final remaining items of territory in Syria, one thing Trump mentioned his advisers in Washington argued may nonetheless take years.
Lt. Normal John D. Caine takes his seat as he arrives for a Senate Armed Companies Committee listening to on his nomination to be the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Workers on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on April 1, 2025.
Jim Watson/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
In that first retelling, Trump jokingly centered on how he was struck by the overall’s name signal “Razin,” asking if it was a reference to the raisin fruit.
Trump continued to inform a model of that story through the years, however ultimately yr’s CPAC, the place he once more introduced up that first encounter with Caine, the president appeared to state that Caine was sporting a pink MAGA hat on the time.
Nevertheless, it was unclear if Trump was referring to Caine or to a sergeant as a result of within the transcript of these remarks, he first talked about assembly Caine, whom he known as basic and requested his identify.
Then, in line with the transcript, Trump appeared to ask a sergeant his identify, who in flip instructed him, in line with Trump, “Sure, sir. I really like you, sir. I feel you are nice, sir. I am going to kill for you, sir.”
Then he places on a “Make America Nice Once more” hat, as did tons of of different service members in Trump’s retelling.
“They usually’re not supposed to do that, however all of them placed on the ‘Make America Nice Once more’ hat, proper? Not imagined to do it. I mentioned, you are not supposed to try this. You recognize that. They mentioned, ‘It is OK, sir. We do not care,'” Trump mentioned.
The sporting of political merchandise by navy service members just isn’t allowed as it’s a tenet of an apolitical navy.