The Senate confirms Dan Caine as president of the joint staff heads
The Senate confirmed at the beginning of Friday, the lieutenant general Dan Caine, a former national driver of guards and fighters, is president of the joint staff leaders.
General Caine is replacing another pilot of Air Force fighters, General Charles Brown, known as CQ, which President Trump abruptly shot In February.
The lops of the Senate of General Caine was expected, which is retired. While the Democrats had expressed concern about the eruption of layoffs in the Pentagon in the second mandate of Mr. Trump, General Caine collected little opposition because most of them seemed to see him as perhaps the best possible option, given the circumstances.
In his new role, as Senior military councilor of Mr. Trump and the Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, General Caine will take on a joint staff who has somehow isolated from the decision -making process on national security in the last two months.
The first challenge that he will face will be if he manages to exercise any influence. Trump’s national security team has started a series of first moves, also expanding a campaign of bombings intended to curb the Houthi militants supported by Iran in Yemen and considering if and how the United States will continue military assistance in Ukrainian for the war with Russia.
The confirmation of General Caine did not arrive with anyone from the drama that accompanied that of Mr. Hegseth, who, in the midst of a burst of questions about his qualifications, needed the vice president JD Vance to express the decisive vote.
During the hearing of General Caine in front of the Senate’s armed services committee on April 1, the Democrats seemed to be torn. They wanted him to say clearly that he would reject some of Mr. Hegseth’s initiatives aim for ethnic minorities, women and other groups. But they did not want to push so strong that they irreparably damage his relationships with Mr. Hegseth and Mr. Trump before even going into office.
“I expect you to always commit your best military advice to the President and the Secretary of Defense,” said Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the democratic ranking in the Committee. “Even if that advice is not what they would like to hear.”
General Caine, for his part, promised that he would give the president and Mr. Hegseth his best military advice and undertaken to “tell the truth in power”.
Last Wednesday, Senator Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican who presides over the armed services committee, invited the Senate to remain in session the time necessary to approve general Caine.
“The Chinese Communist Party continues a large military accumulation and our opponents continue to join against the United States,” said Wicker in a note. “It is essential that the Senate confirms the lieutenant Gen. Caine as president of the chiefs of staff joined this week.”
Eric Schmitt Contributed relationships.
