As the Trump Administration works to nudge Ukraine and Russia closer to the negotiation table and towards a peace deal, a figure increasingly at the center of the negotiations is U.S. Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll, a close ally of Vice President J.D. Vance.
In an unusual move, Driscoll is leading talks on Tuesday in Abu Dhabi with a Russian delegation to discuss Trump’s latest plan for peace. The moment is the latest sign of Driscoll’s rise within Trump’s inner circle. Days earlier, Driscoll and Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke in Geneva with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. A joint statement released by the U.S. and Ukraine on Sunday described that summit as having yielded “meaningful progress toward aligning positions and identifying clear next steps.”
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The meetings come after Trump’s 28-point peace plan for Ukraine was leaked to the press last week, leaving many wondering about its origins and questioning whether it was actually authored by Russian officials. Rubio denied this, and said that it was authored by the U.S. entirely. Since then, the U.S. has agreed to modify the peace deal amid criticism from Zelensky and European leaders.
Read More: Trump’s Ukraine Peace Plan Is a Wake-Up Call for Europe
The 39-year-old Driscoll has become an unlikely envoy for Trump’s peace plan, previously not known for his negotiation skills, but emerging as a key player. Driscoll’s Kyiv trip last week placed him as one of the highest ranking Pentagon officials to visit the conflict zone since Trump took office in January.
Before becoming Army Secretary, Driscoll served in Iraq as an armor officer, leaving after three and a half years as a first lieutenant. Afterward, Driscoll attended Yale Law School, and briefly interned at the Senate Committee for Veterans Affairs, before joining Charlotte investment banking firm BlackArch Partners. From there on, Driscoll’s career consisted mostly of working in venture capital and private equity firms before an unsuccessful run for a congressional seat in North Carolina, where Driscoll grew up.
The Army Secretary position is often seen as unglamorous, overseeing the budget and management of the over one million Armymen, national guard, and reserve soldiers.
Yet, Driscoll has curried favor with Trump as he proved a strong ally for the President’s deployment of the National Guard to U.S. cities, including Washington D.C., Chicago, and Memphis. Amid criticism of Trump’s Washington D.C. takeover and use of military force on civilians to “restore public safety and order,” Driscoll stood by the President, telling Fox News in August that soldiers were “thrilled to be on this mission.”
Read More: Trump’s National Guard Deployment Shows America What Black Communities Have Always Known
Driscoll has also pushed to modernize the Army and better utilize drone warfare, calling for the U.S. to purchase one million drones over the next two to three years. He has praised the machines as cheap, yet cutting-edge warfighting tools that will “absolutely dominate warfare in the twenty-first century.”
“Anybody paying attention to Ukraine knows that warfare has changed,” Driscoll told the Wall Street Journal this month. “Every single city is exposed, every single country is exposed, and one of the best ways to take down a drone threat is with another drone.”
Driscoll’s rise comes as Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, will likely leave his post in January, according to reports by Reuters. Kellogg was seen by Europe and Ukrainian Media as a very sympathetic ear in the White House, though months after his appointment, Kellogg appears to have been largely shut out of peace talks..
Driscoll’s rise in Trump’s orbit comes amid his close friendship with Vance, a former veteran who attended Yale Law School with Driscoll and is a strong proponent of Trump’s efforts in Ukraine. This past week, Vance publicly criticized those who feel Trump is appeasing Russian President Vladimir Putin with the new peace deal, including Sen. Mitch McConnell.
“This is a ridiculous attack on the president’s team, which has worked tirelessly to clean up the mess in Ukraine that Mitch–always eager to write blank checks to Biden’s foreign policy–left us,” Vance wrote in a post on X Monday responding to McConnell.
In a separate post defending the peace plan over the weekend, Vance wrote, “Every criticism of the peace framework the administration is working on either misunderstands the framework or misstates some critical reality on the ground.”
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