US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine is President Donald Trump’s dominant adviser on Iran, and this dates back to June 2025, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
Many other top officials, including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and special envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, too, have been heavily involved in advising the president in this matter.
Yet now that much of the talk revolves around potential military scenarios – in terms of America’s offensive capacity and limits, as well as the military costs of an Iranian counterattack – Caine’s concerns appear to be getting the most attention.
While Axios and The Wall Street Journal both reported on Tuesday on Caine’s role in the current Iran situation, the Post can confirm that the US Joint Chiefs chairman assumed this central role on Iran as early as the 12 Day War in June 2025.
According to sources, when key officials wanted to influence Trump and the direction of that war, they made special efforts to approach Caine over other officials.
Some officials experienced this as a shift, given that during the Biden administration, the impression was that more could sometimes be achieved by communicating with then-CENTCOM chief Gen. Erik Kurilla rather than his superior, then-Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. C.Q. Brown. Kurilla and Browns’s relative influences were often covered in the media at that time.
However, the Post understands that, while some viewed Brown as heavily influential, he was an unusually modest chairman who did little to cultivate his image with the media.
In any event, sources indicated to the Post that efforts to influence Trump and the direction of the current situation have focused heavily on Caine.
When IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir, Mossad Director David Barnea, and IDF Intelligence Chief Maj.-Gen. Shlomi Binder visited Washington recently to make their case directly to a variety of officials, they chose to do so collectively to Caine in particular.
On Tuesday, when Trump posted about Caine on Truth Social, he did not deny the US military chief’s influence; he rejected characterizations of Caine’s views on a potential war with Iran.
With all of that said, CENTCOM Chief Adm. Brad Cooper, who replaced Kurilla in August, is as influential as ever as the top commander who has planned the current potential massive American military operation against Iran, and he will lead it if it comes to pass, the Post understands.
Recent implied criticism of Cooper by Axios for being less influential than Kurilla in his time, due to Caine being Trump’s primary briefer – whereas Kurilla only sometimes directly briefed Biden – can also be viewed as a low-grade issue combined with much larger quirks regarding the hows of both Biden’s and Trump’s national security decision-making processes.
For example, president Joe Biden had a large, powerful, and influential National Security Council run by Jake Sullivan.
In contrast, Trump fired his first national security advisor, Mike Waltz, in May, and proceeded to take apart much of his own NSC, directing Rubio to assume the position of national security advisor as somewhat of an afterthought, in addition to his position as secretary of state.
Cooper might be 'key operational mastermind' in event of war
Next, the Post has learned that as influential as Kurilla was, his direct briefing function was limited.
Some might even consider Cooper to have been the key operational mastermind and point out that if and when there is a war, the world would “see” Cooper’s influence play out on the international stage, without him having to talk it up, even if – as a commander of a foreign theater – he is not formally a policy advisor.
In addition, Cooper was sent by the White House to inject fear into the Iranians when he joined Kushner and Witkoff in the first negotiations meeting with Iran earlier in February.
As deputy CENTCOM chief, Cooper also ran significant aspects of US operations in June.
All of that is only in the Iranian arena.
Regarding Gaza, Cooper has been more obviously a critical point man. He was in Cairo with Kushner and Witkoff to help seal the Israel-Hamas War ceasefire.
In Syria, when tensions started to unravel the situation between Syrian ruler Ahmad al-Sharaa and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, Cooper was sent again by the White House to Syria and Iraq to ensure that the SDF could withdraw safely.
He arrived in a helicopter at the front lines to ensure that the most dangerous Iraqi detainees in Syria remained in custody during their transfer.
Some might say that it is not fair to compare the influence of Caine under Trump – a different president – to Brown’s influence under Biden, with the more relevant comparison being to former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Mark Milley under Biden.
Different presidents rely on differing advisers as they weigh distinct elements of complex issues, such that two separate presidents’ ways of employing their advisers and commanders are not comparable.
After all the debates about how much influence one or another adviser may have, all sources point to the bottom line that Trump himself will have the final word.