U.S. Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll was among the officials from the Trump administration who traveled to Kyiv last week and met with President Volodymyr Zelensky in an attempt to negotiate a peace plan between Ukraine and Russia.
American political pundits see Driscoll’s visit as a sign of “his new prominence in the administration.” Note: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth did not travel to Kyiv.
Driscoll, an Iraq War veteran, Yale Law School graduate and close friend of Vice President JD Vance, has increasingly been given the responsibility of delivering messages to key leaders and selling the administration’s policies and plans to reporters.
Not all MAGA supporters agree with Driscoll’s messages. As seen below during a one-on-one interview with Dasha Burns on Politico’s The Conversation, Driscoll was asked about Army recruitment and retention, especially with women.
Burns noted that Hegseth “has questioned the role of women in the military, specifically in combat,” and asked “What’s the morale of women in the Army?”
What is this garbage?
Secretary of Army, Dan Driscoll, on Army Ranger school:
“I could not tell the gender of any of the recruits.”
I hope Hegseth fires you immediately for this woke crap.
Diversity is not our strength. pic.twitter.com/387zqts3od
— Walter Curt (@wcdispatch) November 23, 2025
Driscoll replied that he had just visited the prestigious Army Ranger school in the mountains of Georgia, where he did a patrol with some of the candidates.
Driscoll said: “The remarkable thing to me was you could not tell the difference between the men and the women, carrying the big rucksacks and the huge weapons up that hill. Everyone has the exact same haircut. Everybody’s wearing the exact same clothes.”
He added: “I probably watched 100 soldiers walk by and could not tell you gender. And so what I would say to you is, looking at Ranger school, it has not changed its standards. It has a 50 percent attrition rate.”
Driscoll offered a personal note by saying he “desperately hopes” his daughter Lila, currently 7, joins the program when old enough. “I hope she can pass. I hope she can make that standard. And I hope, if she wants to be in combat arms, that she excels there.”
Walter Curt of the conservative platform The WC Dispatch and the America First podcast The Political Theater, responded to the interview by writing on social media: “What is this garbage? Secretary of Army, Dan Driscoll, on Army Ranger school: ‘I could not tell the gender of any of the recruits.’ I hope Hegseth fires you immediately for this woke crap. Diversity is not our strength.”
While some MAGA influencers including “Curious George” objected to Curt’s take on Driscoll (“He meant it in a good way: the standards are the same for men and women. That’s what he meant. It’s a good thing”), others tagged Hegseth, echoed his mantra “Diversity is not our strength” and are asking for Driscoll’s resignation (“He needs to resign!”).
Note: Driscoll also released a letter last week telling Army leaders to “call, text or visit” every soldier in their unit daily during the holiday season, saying soldiers aren’t getting enough help on suicide prevention.
U.S. Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll has published a memo titled “Just Pick Up During the Holidays” that is truly a great read and should be followed by every other military branch. The Holidays is a great time for many, but it’s also one of the hardest times of the year for… pic.twitter.com/xRJAcry7MM
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) November 19, 2025
In the letter, Driscoll revealed a time when he was in Ranger School, when he fell and was about to give up. Driscoll wrote: “But my Ranger buddies picked me up and helped me start moving again.” He added, “That was an inflection point for me. I realized that no one can go through life alone. We all break eventually, and we need each other.”