Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has taken center stage as the man to deliver the latest Ukraine peace proposal to the Russians in what has been a meteoric rise for the longtime friend of Vice President JD Vance.
Driscoll arrived in Abu Dhabi and met with Russian officials on Tuesday as the U.S. looks to make good on President Donald Trump’s promise to broker an agreement to end the war.
Driscoll’s participation is unusual for an army secretary, but he has proven to be a key player in the Trump administration.
His outsized role with the high-stakes Ukraine talks suggests the vice president’s influence looms large at the White House as both Driscoll and Secretary of State Marco Rubio scramble to facilitate the deal.
Driscoll’s rising profile on the world stage also raises questions about what kind of role he could potentially play in a future Vance administration as the vice president and Rubio, the two most likely 2028 contenders work around each other and alongside one another to curry favor with the current commander in chief.
The army secretary and Vance have been friends for years, having attended Yale Law School together. He has taken on the role more often carried out by the secretary of state.
First, Driscoll traveled to Kyiv, where he sat down one-on-one with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss the initial framework for an agreement that the U.S. had been quietly working on.
Even some Republicans blasted the first draft of the 28-point plan as a Vladimir Putin wish list, but officials insisted it was just the starting point in the ongoing negotiations.
On Sunday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Ukrainian officials in Geneva for further negotiations. He called them the most productive talks they’ve had so far.
While it was Rubio’s show over the weekend, including speaking to reporters about the latest updates, Driscoll was in Switzerland at the table seated right beside Rubio for the discussions. Special envoy Steve Witkoff was also in the room.
But it was Driscoll who was tasked with bringing the plan now containing Ukraine’s newest input back to the Russians.
He arrived late on Monday in Abu Dhabi for the key meeting.
With the ball now back in Putin and Russia’s court, it is perhaps the most challenging leg of his journey so far, especially for someone who has no background negotiating with the Russians.
Asked about how it came to be Driscoll was chosen to meet with Zelensky and then the Russians, the White House said that the entire national security team is working together.
“President Trump appreciates Secretary Driscoll’s efforts to gather input from both the Russians and the Ukrainians in order to craft a deal that secures a durable and enforceable peace,” said spokesperson Anna Kelly in a statement.
Vance’s office did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast’s inquiry.
But the vice president has been fiercely defending the administration’s efforts against criticism that the initial framework heavily favored Russia and that Putin has been stringing the president along for months.
Ahead of the ongoing talks, he wrote on X that critics “either misunderstands the framework or misstates some critical reality on the ground.”
He also reposted his potential 2028 rival as Rubio insisted the original draft came from the U.S. and not Russia.
A spokesperson for the war secretary said in a statement provided to multiple news outlets that Driscoll and the team met with the Russians on Monday and Tuesday and that the talks are “going well” and they remain optimistic.
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