Retired Lieutenant Dan Razin Kane, President Donald Trump’s candidate for the next chairman of the Joint Staff Chief, denied on Tuesday that he had once wore a “make up America” or any other type of political commodity.
At least in a retelling of Kane and Trump’s first meeting in Iraq in 2018, the president seems to show that Kane is dressed in a red hat from Maga, something that will not be allowed under military rules.
The question was raised by some senators of Kane’s hearing before the Senate Armed Forces Committee.
“Let me start by asking about some hyperbole that may have been there in the press,” Senator Roger Wicker, R-emiss, said at the beginning of the hearing on Tuesday. “General Kane, did you wear a hat from the President?”
“No, sir,” he replied.
He gave the same answer when he asked from Wicker: “Did you wear a magician hat anytime?”
Lieutenant General John D. Kane takes his place when he arrives for a hearing of the Senate Armed Forces Committee for his nomination to be chairman of the joint chiefs of the Staffs of the Capitol Hill in Washington, on April 1, 2025.
Nathan Howard/Reuters
And when he was pressed by Wicker, Kane said, “Sir, for 34 years, I have supported my oath and my commitment to my committee and have never carried political goods.”
When Senator Jack Reed, Dr., the member of the Commission’s ranking, followed the same line of questioning, Kane replied: “As I mentioned to the President for 34 years, I supported my oath in my committee’s responsibilities.
“I think I came back and listened to these cartridges. I think the president is actually talking about someone else,” Kane said. “And I have never carried a political commodity or have not said anything about this effect.”
Trump’s story about how he first met Kane has developed over the years since he first mentioned Kane during the notes of the Conservative Political Action Conference in February 2019, shortly after his trip to Iraq in the previous year.
Trump has repeatedly given Kane to the war against the Islamic State and in his first retelling of their meeting noted how Kane was memorable to him that he said that ISIS could be destroyed in weeks, and quickly struck in his last pieces of territory in Syria.
Lieutenant General John D. Kane takes his place when he arrives for a hearing of the Senate Armed Forces Committee for his nomination to be chairman of the joint chiefs of the Staffs of the Capitol Hill in Washington, on April 1, 2025.
Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
In this first retelling, Trump jokingly focused on how he was struck by the sign of the Razin General, asking if this was a reference to the fetus of raisins.
Trump has continued to tell a version of this story over the years, but at last year’s CPAC, where he again raised this first meeting with Kane, the president appeared to say that Kane was wearing a red hat on Maga at the time.
However, it was unclear whether Trump was referring to Kane or a sergeant, because in the transcript of these remarks he first mentioned the meeting with Kane, whom he cited as a general and asked for his name.
Then, according to the transcript, it seems that Trump asked Sergeant his name, who in turn told him, according to Trump, “Yes, sir. I love you, sir. I think you’re great, sir. I’ll kill for you, sir.”
Then he puts the “make America Great again” hat, as well as hundreds of other members of the service in retelling Trump.
“And they don’t have to do this, but they all dress the” make America great “hat, right? They shouldn’t do it. I said you don’t have to do it. You know that. They said,” It’s good, sir. We don’t care, “Trump said.
Wearing political goods by members of military service is not permitted as it is the principle of apolitical military.
