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State Department Briefing, May 1, 2025 (Full Session): The Waltz-to-UN, Rubio-as-Interim-NSA News Breaks Live

May 1, 2025 · U.S. Department of State · 1:54:52

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

What happened

Spokesperson Tammy Bruce led the full State Department briefing on May 1, 2025, according to the department’s recording of the session. Bruce opened with the administration’s first-100-days announcements: she said President Trump had nominated, and the Senate confirmed, more key foreign-policy leaders in his first hundred days than in the same period of any of the last four administrations, as she stated the comparison, and she announced that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had signed the agreement establishing the U.S.-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund. She said President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio had selected Ambassador Julie Davis, a career Senior Foreign Service officer of Minister Counselor rank who has served as ambassador to Cyprus since February 2023, to serve as chargé d’affaires in Kyiv during the move toward a peace agreement, as she presented the appointment. Bruce also noted that her spokesperson’s office had held 100 press engagements in 100 days.

Mid-briefing, a reporter read out President Trump’s just-posted Truth Social announcement that Mike Waltz will become the new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and that, in the interim, Secretary Rubio will serve as national security adviser while continuing his leadership at the State Department. Bruce responded that she had just heard it from the reporter, declined to speculate on how long Rubio would serve in both roles, and said the President is the one running the country and that his leadership and vision set the policy. She praised Rubio as a man who has worn several hats from day one, managing the State Department and USAID, with a close day-to-day working relationship with the President and long Senate experience, and she called the news good news for the American people and not entirely surprising, as she reacted to the announcement in the room.

The exchange made the briefing itself the venue where the department’s leadership change became public: the sitting Secretary of State was named interim national security adviser, and the outgoing national security adviser was named the next UN ambassador, with the department’s spokesperson learning the details from the press corps in real time, as the recording shows.

Why it matters

Beyond its announcements, this full session captures a government changing shape live on camera: the national security adviser’s move to the UN and the Secretary of State’s double-hatting, announced by tweet and absorbed by the department’s spokesperson in front of the press.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: the May 1, 2025 announcement itself — Waltz nominated to the UN ambassadorship and Rubio named interim national security adviser — is a verdict-worthy personnel event flagged for the scoreboard editors, with no verdict entered here.

Sources: U.S. Department of State, “Department of State Press Briefing - May 1, 2025 - 2:00 PM”, 2025-05-01 (official upload, embedded above; published 2025-05-01). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.