One key figure is missing from the pack of top national security officials crisscrossing the globe to achieve a Ukraine peace deal: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

But that sits fine with the White House, which is happy with his culture war attacks, made-for-TV images rallying the troops and online trolling of MAGA enemies.

The Defense secretary has stayed silent on the surprising role of his subordinate, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, who recently catapulted into the spotlight by leading surprise negotiations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv and Russian advisers in Abu Dhabi. Hegseth, instead, has been stirring support from President Donald Trump’s base for authorizing an investigation into Sen. Mark Kelly, a former Navy captain, who told troops in a video that they can refuse illegal orders.

The Pentagon leader — a former Fox News host who seems more at home railing against diversity programs than leading diplomatic consultations — has carved out an unorthodox political niche that has helped insulate him from criticism within the administration, at least for now.

“The president expects Pete to rule out DEI at the Pentagon, which he has been quite successful at doing,” said a senior White House official. “The president also loves that.”

The Defense secretary position is traditionally not an overtly partisan role, especially since the person works with a military that has taken an oath to stay apolitical. But Hegseth’s tenure has been markedly different from his predecessors in the way he’s politicized the office. He’s antagonized Democratic lawmakers on social media, huddled with conservative activists such as Laura Loomer in his office, and stacked a new hand-picked Pentagon press corps with far-right conspiracy websites.

“It’s all about projecting an image of strength,” said a former Pentagon official, who, like others interviewed, was granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive topic. “The new acquisition reform policy is a huge and important thing he’s doing,” the person said, in reference to a new initiative to transform U.S. weapons sales. “But he’s still focused on talking about DEI and grooming standards instead of that policy change.”

And that appears to have gone over well in an administration that appreciates confidence, power and loyalty.

“Hegseth still seems in tight with (read: loyal) to POTUS,” said another defense official. “And this ridiculousness with Sen. Kelly and the IG investigation could make Hegseth more popular with the president in the short term. Until it backfires.”

The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment. The White House insisted Hegseth was involved in broader discussions about the future of Ukraine.

“Secretary Hegseth is deeply involved in all national security matters, including the Russia-Ukraine War, and any suggestion to the contrary is false,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. “In addition to running the Pentagon, Secretary Hegseth manages the weapons sales process to NATO, provides critical battlefield updates to the president, participates in the president’s intelligence briefings, and he is also deeply involved in discussions about Venezuela, China, and all of the challenges around the globe.”

His tenure is still tenuous. Hegseth continues to face fallout from Signalgate, one of the most embarrassing incidents of Trump’s second term. The Defense Department’s inspector general is expected to soon conclude an investigation into whether the Pentagon chief released classified information about U.S. military strikes in Yemen this year in a Signal chat that accidentally included a journalist.

The release of the report, if it further implicates Hegseth, could present problems. And the Pentagon leader may face subpoenas and uncomfortable hearings if the Democrats win back the House in the midterm elections.

Hegseth appears to be playing at least some role in the administration’s controversial efforts to root out drug cartels in Latin America and weaken the authority of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. He traveled to the Dominican Republic on Wednesday as the Pentagon continues with an unprecedented military buildup in the Caribbean.

“They’re very situational and they plug and play based on what makes sense at the moment,” said Alex Gray, a National Security Council chief of staff in the first Trump administration. “Some of the things that [Hegseth] is front and center on are things that require the most adept communication expertise and the best messaging capacity.”

But Driscoll continued to make his own headlines this week, pushing Ukraine and European allies to accept Trump’s peace proposal and meeting with a Russian delegation as the main U.S. negotiator. Trump indicated on Tuesday that special envoy Steve Witkoff would head to Moscow while Driscoll met with the Ukrainians.

The White House tasked Driscoll, who was already set to visit Ukraine to talk about drones, to “go and then open the door for peace,” said a U.S. official familiar with the matter.

The plug-and-play dynamic may have roots much earlier in the administration. Another person familiar with the situation said that behind the scenes, Hegseth can come off as stilted and uncomfortable in closed-door diplomatic meetings, and has had to rely on scripts in certain situations.

“When you’re in a fluid diplomatic discussion, you can’t just stick to a script,” the person said.

And yet it’s Hegseth who has gotten attention from some of Trump’s most ardent supporters, including Loomer, a MAGA influencer. She occasionally meets with Hegseth and has lambasted Driscoll online for not being sufficiently loyal to the president.

“I’m not telling Pete Hegseth how to do his job,” Loomer told POLITICO this summer. “He’s a good leader in the sense that he’s not just ignoring [issues I raise] and saying, ‘Oh, well, it doesn’t matter.’”

White House allies made the case that Hegseth also has a key role both in Trump-era housecleaning of military brass and the Pentagon’s increasing role in border security and domestic deployments.

“The amount of internal cleanup that has to be done is extraordinary,” said Gray. “[Hegseth] has had to be incredibly focused on messaging and communicating the president’s agenda for reforming the department.”