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America's Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, was an unlikely diplomat for the Trump administration newest initiative to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. Driscoll's close connection with Vice President Vance has positioned a close associate of the Eurosceptic vice-president at the center of Donald Trump recent effort to settle the war.

Prior to his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was unrecognized as a mediator or statesman, and his early efforts to promote the deal to officials in Europe were labeled turbulent.

His strong ties with Vance, with whom he attended Yale and maintains a personal bond, indicate the rising influence of the isolationist vice-president in talks to end the Ukraine war.

The VP's Involvement in Ceasefire Efforts

This was Vance who stepped in during Volodymyr Zelenskyy disastrous first trip to the White House in March and demanded he show Trump more respect. Currently, Ukraine is once again pushing back against demands from the US to accept a swift settlement that Ukrainian leaders have called a capitulation.

Following a chaotic first year in office, international actions in the White House are said to be shaped by a handful of Trump's key advisers, such as chief of staff Susie Wiles, conservative advisor Stephen Miller, diplomat Steve Witkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a outspoken advocate of the recent plan, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, together with the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every criticism of the ceasefire plan the administration is developing either misinterprets the framework or misstates some key situation on the ground,” Vance stated.

Initial Attempts and European Reactions

Vance's early attempts at negotiating a ceasefire agreement with Russia, while also seeking to restore relations with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling frustrated with their Russian counterparts. European officials, meanwhile, were angered by his initial remarks, in which he charged them of ignoring their voters, who Vance said held anti-immigration and conservative positions similar to those of Trump's own supporters.

However, the new peace deal closely resembled his stances, and he has been one of the most forceful advocates for the deal in the government, even as the US has been under fire for endorsing a ceasefire plan that mostly echoes Vladimir Putin's extreme terms.

In social media updates this weekend, Vance asserted that a ceasefire agreement would have to establish a ceasefire that honored Ukrainian sovereignty, be agreeable to both sides, and stop the war from restarting.

“Peace won’t be made by failed negotiators or politicians living in a fantasy land,” he continued. “It could be made by smart people operating in the actual situation.”

Additionally, it was Vance who followed up on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly tasked his team with obtaining a agreement on the ceasefire accord prior to Thanksgiving this Thursday in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Reaction and Private Concerns

Vance's stance was a distinctly more enthusiastic endorsement of the plan than that given by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more traditional hawk in the administration who has gone from a shaky stature inside the administration to more stable footing.

Rubio was a member of a US delegation that went to Geneva this past weekend to confer with Ukrainian leaders to help refine the initial 28-point peace plan in order to make it more palatable to leaders in Kyiv.

But, his first response to the deal was lukewarm:

“Stopping a complex and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine demands an extensive discussion of substantive and pragmatic ideas,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “Furthermore, securing a lasting peace will require both sides to consent to challenging but necessary compromises. This is the reason we are and will continue to create a list of possible solutions for ending this war based on input from both sides of this conflict.”

In private, he was reportedly much more skeptical of the plan. The Republican senator Mike Rounds said last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had called lawmakers to explain that the deal was just a initial offer from the Russians and not an initiative advocated by the White House.

“Rubio did make a phone call to us this afternoon and I believe he made it very clear to us that we are the receivers of a proposal that was delivered to one of our officials,” said Rounds. “It is not our recommendation, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio acted swiftly to align himself. “This ceasefire plan was written by the US,” he later wrote. “It is offered as a solid framework for ongoing negotiations. The proposal is derived from feedback from the Moscow. However, it is additionally informed by earlier and current input from Ukraine.”