State Department Briefing: Bruce on NATO 5 Percent Push, $9 Million for Burma Earthquake Relief, and Netanyahu Visit, Apr. 8, 2025

Name: "State Department Briefing: Bruce on NATO 5 Percent Push, $9 Million for Burma Earthquake Relief, and Netanyahu Visit, Apr. 8, 2025"
Uploaded: 2025-04-08
Duration: 1 h 42 min 56 s
Description: "Spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland had publicly supported President Trump's call for NATO allies to spend 5 percent of GDP on defense, that the United States made $9 million available for Burma earthquake relief, and that Trump and Netanyahu discussed Gaza and Iran, according to the briefing."

April 8, 2025 · U.S. Department of State · 1:42:56

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Spokesperson Tammy Bruce opened the April 8, 2025 briefing by noting Secretary Rubio’s hallway visit with the traveling press pool, then announced that the secretary had traveled to Brussels for the NATO foreign ministers’ meeting, where he pressed allies on increasing defense spending, according to Bruce.

Bruce said that since the November election, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland had publicly announced support for President Trump’s call for allies to raise defense spending to 5 percent of GDP, and another 10 allies had announced additional increases since Trump took office in January, according to the briefing. She quoted Rubio that NATO can only become stronger and more viable if partner nations have more capability, according to Bruce. She said Rubio also met Indo-Pacific partners in Brussels about the threats the Chinese Communist Party poses, according to the briefing.

Bruce said the United States made $9 million available to support the people of Burma after the March 28 earthquake in Burma and Thailand, with a U.S. expert team deployed to the disaster zone on April 3 and humanitarian help agreed for health access, clean water, and sanitation, according to the briefing. She also said President Trump met Prime Minister Netanyahu the previous day, discussing Gaza and the need for Hamas to release all hostages, and that Trump reaffirmed Iran can never obtain a nuclear weapon and announced diplomacy was under way, according to Bruce.

Why it matters

The briefing is the department’s April 8 record on three fronts — the 5 percent NATO campaign’s stated early adopters, the Burma relief commitment, and the Netanyahu meeting’s stated agenda — in the spokesperson’s words.

Sources: U.S. Department of State, “Department of State Press Briefing - April 8, 2025 - 2:00 PM”, 2025-04-08 (official upload, embedded above; published 2025-04-08). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.