US Senate Committee on Armed Services via Wikimedia Commons

Daniel Driscoll LAW ’14, President Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of the Army, was confirmed by the Senate on Tuesday in a 66-28 vote. 

A close advisor and friend to Vice President JD Vance LAW ’13, Driscoll becomes the eighth Yale graduate to hold the position, which oversees all matters related to the U.S. Army and advises the Secretary of Defense.

Driscoll’s confirmation followed a largely non-confrontational hearing before the Senate Committee on Armed Services earlier this month. While facing tough questions from Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., and Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., regarding his willingness to decline unlawful orders, Driscoll ultimately received bipartisan support, including from Sen. Richard Blumenthal LAW ’73, D-Conn.

“As a lawyer, we follow the facts and the law, and that’s what Dan Driscoll will do as secretary of the Army,” Blumenthal said.

Blumenthal’s son, state Rep. Matt Blumenthal LAW ’15, attended Yale Law School alongside Driscoll. During the hearing, Blumenthal, who endorsed Driscoll, noted that both his son and former President Joe Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan ’98 LAW ’03 described Driscoll as “a person willing to listen, to learn and to work in a bipartisan way, to put our soldiers first.”

A North Carolina native, Driscoll earned degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the U.S. Army Officer Candidate School. He served in the army for three and a half years, was deployed to Iraq in 2009 and later worked for Opportunity Nation, a nonprofit focused on reducing economic inequality.

“The world is changing rapidly, and we must ensure the Army is prepared to operate in new, complex and contested environments,” Driscoll said during the hearing. “From advancing our capabilities in multidomain operations to cutting-edge technologies, my sacred duty to our Army is to ensure our soldiers have the world’s finest training, equipment and leadership to accomplish any mission.”

Driscoll studied at Yale Law School on the Elliot Goldstein Scholarship, awarded to students who excel at corporate law.

At Yale Law School, Driscoll became involved in the Yale Veterans Legal Services Clinic, held a prosecution externship with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, interned for the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs and clerked for Chief Judge Alex Kozinski on the Ninth Circuit. He also received a Yale Law School grant to serve as “an official observer” at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.

“Yale Law School is possibly the only place in the world where you can safely explore so many different intellectual areas,” Driscoll told the Yale Law School Development Office. “And the people are amazing!”

While volunteering at the Veterans Legal Services Clinic in his first year, Driscoll met Vance, who ran the group and became a mentor. In an interview, Driscoll called Vance “a friend I have a ton of respect for” and praised his leadership.

“I think the way that you could tell that JD was so different is he didn’t seem to get kind of sucked up in the power dynamic that exists at a place like Yale Law School,” Driscoll said in an interview with PBS last year. “I think from the outside, people want to view, again, JD as this kind of power-hungry, flattened character who’s just seeking to one day rule the world, and that just couldn’t be any further from the truth of the man I know.”

After graduating from Yale, Driscoll worked as an investment banker and later ran in a Republican congressional primary in North Carolina in 2020, securing only about 8 percent of the vote.

Before administering the oath to Driscoll on Tuesday, Vance called Driscoll “a dear friend of mine.” After taking the oath, Driscoll thanked Vance, saying their “friendship has been the adventure of a lifetime” and expressing excitement for the future.

The Secretary of the Army position was created in 1947 under President Harry S. Truman, replacing the role of Secretary of War.