US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance denounced as fabricated an NBC News report alleging an administration rift over Ukraine policy—and that Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll warned Kyiv of "imminent defeat" unless it accepted Washington's peace plan.
The denials arrive as Ukraine negotiates the terms of its survival with an administration whose original 28-point peace plan—crafted by Trump envoy Steve Witkoff and Kremlin-linked financier Kirill Dmitriev—would require Kyiv to cede territory it still controls, abandon NATO aspirations, and halve its military while Russia retains its full combat force.
What NBC News alleged
According to NBC News, citing two sources with knowledge of the matter, Driscoll delivered what one source called a message that "you are losing, and you need to accept the deal" during his visit to Kyiv last week. The report claimed Driscoll said Russia was "ramping up the scale and pace" of attacks and "had the ability to fight on indefinitely."
The NBC report also alleged a "long-running rift" within the Trump administration, characterizing it as a potential 2028 presidential rivalry between Vance—who allegedly favors "using US leverage to force Kyiv to make major compromises"—and Rubio, who reportedly "sees Russia as the culprit for having launched an unprovoked invasion."
Rubio and Vance hit back
Rubio posted on X: "This story is just the latest example of a long-running series of 100% fake news reports claiming a rift inside the Trump administration over how to end the war in Ukraine. These people don't just get things wrong, they literally make things up."
Vance amplified Rubio's denial: "The media is lying in order to derail the president's agenda. It's really that simple."
A State Department spokesperson told NBC News that Trump's team is "working in lockstep" on ending the war.
What the denials leave unanswered
Neither Rubio nor Vance disputed that Driscoll presented the 28-point plan Ukraine declined, or that territory, military caps, and NATO membership remain unresolved after Geneva revised the proposal to 19 points.
The public denial by Rubio and Vance complicates the narrative of a forced peace, potentially signaling a "good cop, bad cop" strategy or genuine internal dysfunction. For Ukraine, the stakes are existential: facing a potential cutoff of aid if they refuse the deal, yet reassured by public statements dismissing these reports as fiction.
