'Violate the most basic code': Trump anecdote could muddle nomination for military adviser

Donald Trump's choice for a top military adviser may have violated military rules by donning a red MAGA hat, according to the president's telling.

The president claims retired Lt. Gen. Dan ‘Razin’ Caine, his pick to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wore the hat when they met in Iraq in 2018, after saying he “loved” him and would “kill" for him, but a military official who has knowledge of that encounter denied Trump's recollection, reported Politico.

“He’s never touched a MAGA hat,” said the official. “I’ve known him for a decade. Never heard him say anything political or partisan.”

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Whether or not Trump's anecdote is exaggerated, lawmakers will be asking Caine to “explain what happened,” said Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), the Senate Armed Services Committee’s top Democrat.

“If it happened the way the president said, well, that’s completely unprofessional," Reed said, "and that, I think, would question his ability to stand up to the president.”

The encounter took place when Caine was deployed to Iraq as a one-star general in the fight against ISIS, and Trump has repeatedly said he was fascinated with his pilot call sign name: Dan ‘Razin’ Caine.

“During my first term, ‘Razin’ was instrumental in the complete annihilation of the ISIS caliphate,” Trump posted last week on Truth Social to announce his nomination. “It was done in record setting time, a matter of weeks. Many so-called military ‘geniuses’ said it would take years to defeat ISIS. General Caine, on the other hand, said it could be done quickly, and he delivered.”

Trump has also claimed that other service members wore MAGA hats during the same visit, which he admits was a violation of military rules in another variation of his apocryphal "sir" stories.

“I said, ‘you’re not supposed to do that, you know that,’" Trump said at last year’s Conservative Political Action Committee conference. "They said, ‘It’s okay, sir. We don’t care.’”

Even Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee are interested in finding out the truth about Trump's recollection of his first meeting with Caine, who would replace Gen. C.Q. Brown Jr., who was fired last week in a shakeup of the Pentagon by defense secretary Pete Hegseth.

“He’s going to be asked about it,” said Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK), a Senate Armed Services Committee senior member. “He’ll go through the normal vetting … we are going to have a patriotically apolitical, stridently constitutional military.”

If confirmed, the veteran F-16 pilot, who retired last year after serving stints in both the Pentagon and CIA, would need to return to active duty, be promoted to four-star general and be granted a presidential waiver, because he hasn't combatant command or a branch of the armed services, but the MAGA hat may be his biggest obstacle to serving as Trump's top military adviser.

It would be disqualifying “for an active-duty member of the United States military to put on a blatantly political piece of clothing while in uniform,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee. “It would violate the most basic kind of code and would probably result in discipline within the military.”