The Senate confirmed early Friday Lt. Gen. Dan Caine, the former National Guardsman and fighter pilot, to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
General Caine is replacing another Air Force fighter pilot, Gen. Charles Brown, known as C.Q., whom President Trump abruptly fired in February.
The Senate’s lopsided approval of General Caine, who is retired, was expected. While Democrats had expressed concerns about the rash of firings at the Pentagon in Mr. Trump’s second term, General Caine garnered little opposition because the majority of them appeared to view him as perhaps the best possible option, given the circumstances.
In his new role, as the senior military adviser to Mr. Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, General Caine will take over a Joint Staff that has been somewhat isolated from national security decision making in the last two months.
The first challenge facing him will be whether he will manage to wield any influence. Mr. Trump’s national security team has embarked on a series of early moves, including by expanding a bombing campaign meant to rein in Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen and considering whether, and how, the United States will continue military assistance to Ukraine for the war with Russia.
General Caine’s confirmation came with none of the drama that accompanied that of Mr. Hegseth, who, amid a flurry of questions about his qualifications, needed Vice President JD Vance to cast the deciding vote.
Throughout General Caine’s hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on April 1, Democrats appeared to be torn. They wanted him to say plainly that he would push back against some of Mr. Hegseth’s initiatives targeting ethnic minorities, women and other groups. But they did not want to push so hard that they irreparably harmed his relationships with Mr. Hegseth and Mr. Trump before he even took office.
“I expect you to pledge to always provide your best military advice to the president and the secretary of defense,” said Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the ranking Democrat on the committee. “Even if that advice is not what they would want to hear.”
General Caine, for his part, promised he would give the president and Mr. Hegseth his best military advice and pledged to “speak truth to power.”
On Wednesday, Senator Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican who chairs the Armed Services Committee, called on the Senate to remain in session as long as necessary to approve General Caine.
“The Chinese Communist Party continues an expansive military buildup, and our adversaries continue to band together against the United States,” Mr. Wicker said in a statement. “It is critical that the Senate confirm Lt. Gen. Caine as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff this week.”
Eric Schmitt contributed reporting.
