Dan Caine is a U.S. Air Force general who has been chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the country's highest-ranking military officer and principal military adviser to the president, since April 2025. A former F-16 pilot, he was associate director for military affairs at the Central Intelligence Agency before becoming chairman.
Role at the time: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in a letter to Sen. Elissa Slotkin
Denied
Statement summary
In a letter to Sen. Elissa Slotkin, Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote that the military has no plans to send federal troops or federalized National Guard members to polling places during the 2026 elections, or to use them to seize ballots, voting machines or other election material. He also wrote that he had neither received nor expected any unlawful order about the military's role in the midterms.
“The Joint Force has no plans to send Federal military personnel or Federalized members of the National Guard to polling places during the 2026 elections. Likewise, the Joint Force has no plans to use such personnel to seize ballots, voting machines, or other election-related material.”
Read the original text (opens in a new tab)Letter from Gen. Dan Caine to Sen. Elissa Slotkin on the Armed Forces and the 2026 midterm elections · Elissa SlotkinOne-page letter, fourth paragraph
Why we used this label
The reference point is the administration's stated or threatened use of ICE and other armed federal personnel at or near polling places in the 2026 election. Caine wrote that the military has no plans to send federal troops or federalized Guard members to polling places, which denies that such a deployment is planned. Mixed or conditional loses because the letter names no circumstance in which troops would be sent; it describes current plans.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin says ICE would go to polling places only for a threat or a warrant, and DHS says ICE is not planning operations targeting them but arrests could follow a threat. Three lawsuits allege that position violates federal law.
