Nomination and confirmation following
airstrikes on
Iranian nuclear facilities, June 2025|left On 21 February 2025, President
Donald Trump named Caine as his nominee to replace
Charles Q. Brown Jr., the
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. According to Trump, Caine told him, "I love you, sir. I think you're great, sir. I'll kill for you, sir." According to
The New York Times, Caine met with Trump and vice president
JD Vance during the week prior to the announcement of the nomination.
Title 10 of the United States Code requires the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to be selected from the officers of the regular components of the armed forces and only if the officer had served as a combatant, unified, or specified commander, the
vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, or, if the officer had served as the highest uniformed officer in one of the six military service branches (although that requirement may be waived if "necessary in the national interest"). He testified before the
Senate Committee on Armed Services on 1 April. The committee voted to advance his nomination 23–4 on 8 April. Caine was confirmed on 11 April in a 60–25 vote. He was promoted to a four-star general prior to the vote. Caine was sworn in on 14 April. He is the first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who never served at the rank of
four-star general or
four-star admiral before assuming the position In May 2025, Caine attended a
NATO summit at
the organization's headquarters in Brussels in which he deliberated on bolstering the alliance. That month, he privately expressed concern that extending
the military campaign against the
Houthis in
Yemen would stress supply of assets he viewed as necessary, contributing to Trump's decision to immediately declare victory. In June, Caine appeared before the
Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, offering a view of the
Russo-Ukrainian war that suggested that—if victorious—Russian president
Vladimir Putin would initiate wars against other countries, refuting Trump's assessment of Putin. Caine rejected Trump's claim that the U.S. was being invaded, the pretense for Trump's 2025 decision to federalize the
California National Guard in response to
protests in Los Angeles. Leading up to the June 2025
Twelve-Day War, Caine and
John Ratcliffe, the
director of the Central Intelligence Agency, gave an assessment to Trump on
Israel's imminent attack on
Iran from
Camp David. Caine, with
Michael Kurilla, the commander of
United States Central Command, led plans for the U.S. military to
strike at Iranian nuclear sites in 2025. He appeared with secretary of defense
Pete Hegseth to provide details on the strike the following day. Caine's muted description of the strikes contrasted with Hegseth's assertion that mirrored Trump's description that the strikes had "obliterated" Iran's nuclear sites. At a second press conference with Hegseth days later, Caine focused on the service members responsible for the strike, which was interpreted as seeking to avoid politicizing the military while serving Trump's interests. According to
The Wall Street Journal, the strikes, in addition to his follow-up comments, helped earn Caine the trust of Trump. Following the 3 January 2026
U.S. intervention in Venezuela that led to the capture of
Nicolás Maduro, Caine appeared alongside Trump and other senior officials in a press conference to report on the operation. During the
Greenland crisis later in January, Trump asked Caine to present potential options and the impacts of using military force to invade and annex
Greenland, part of the
Kingdom of Denmark, ultimately resulting in Trump deciding against an invasion.
2026 Iran war During the
Iran–United States crisis in February, Caine advised Trump about the potential risks of a prolonged war with Iran, which Trump later denied. Caine has been the only military leader briefing Trump on Iran. He has been supportive of the operation in Venezuela, but was more hesitant about Iran because of the higher risk of entanglement and U.S. casualties. Despite this, Caine helped convince Trump that such a war was viable. Caine himself reached this conclusion in part because of his conversations in early February with the
Israel Defense Forces chief of staff, Lt. Gen.
Eyal Zamir, who was critical in convincing him and Central Command chief
Brad Cooper about its viability. Zamir, IDF intelligence chief Maj. Gen.
Shlomi Binder, and
Mossad director
David Barnea visited Washington to make their case to U.S. officials, especially to Caine. Zamir emphasized to Caine the risk posed by Iran's
ballistic missile program to Israel if imminent action was not taken, and that there was a unique moment of opportunity after the
January protests in Iran. At the meeting between Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu on 12 February in Washington, Netanyahu presented a four-step plan. Caine and Cooper supported the first two steps of Netanyahu's plan, the
assassination of Ali Khamenei and airstrikes on Iran's ballistic missile program and
drone program, while being more hesitant on the last two steps of fomenting an uprising and using Kurdish groups to achieve regime change. Neither of them provided much information to Trump about the potential
closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Caine, along with the support of Cooper, kept the involvement of U.S. forces focused on striking Iran's military capabilities, while leaving the goal of regime change—attacks on
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps leaders and command centers—to the Israeli military. Caine did not publicly endorse the goal of regime change, despite Trump calling for it on multiple occasions during the war. == Dates of rank ==