Lieutenant General Dan Kane, the new commander of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Photo: Nathan Posner / Shutterstock
The US Senate has officially approved the nomination of General Dan Kane to the post of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, proposed by President Donald Trump after the sudden dismissal of General Charles Brown. This was reported by The New York Times and The Washington Post.
The nomination was supported by 60 senators, with 25 voting against. This set a historical precedent – Kaine became the first general to be returned from retirement to lead the US armed forces.
The dismissal of the previous commander-in-chief, Charles Brown, and five other high-ranking military officials caused outrage among Democrats, who accused Trump of attempting to politically usurp the military chain of command by appointing “loyal” commanders.
At the Senate hearings, Kaine stressed his apolitical position, promised not to carry out illegal orders from the president and stressed his loyalty to the US Constitution. He denied rumours of wearing MAGA (Make America Great Again) symbols and participating in political campaigning.
Kaine also cautiously commented on the incident with the leak of information through the Signal messenger, when Trump administration officials were rumoured to have coordinated military operations in Yemen, mistakenly including a journalist in the conversation.
Despite his atypical path to command, including not leading a major combatant unit, Kane said: “We live in atypical times – and that requires atypical solutions.”
