Spokesperson for the United States Department of State

Spokesperson for the United States Department of State
Seal of the United States Department of State
Incumbent Tammy Bruce since January 20, 2025
Appointer	The secretary of state
Inaugural holder	Michael J. McDermott
Website	Official website

The spokesperson for the United States Department of State is a U.S. government official whose primary responsibility is to serve as the spokesperson for the United States Department of State and the U.S. government's foreign policies. The position is located in the Bureau of Global Public Affairs. ^[1]

Historically, the State Department spokesperson and the assistant secretary of state for public affairs were synonymous names for the same role. However, this has not been the case since Philip J. Crowley's tenure ended in 2011. ^[2] Since 2011, the assistant secretary and the spokesperson have been two separate roles held by different people. ^[3] In late 2015, the two roles were once again merged with the appointment of Spokesperson John Kirby as Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs. ^[4]

Responsibilities

The State Department spokesperson is responsible for communicating the foreign policy of the United States to American and foreign media, typically in a daily press briefing. The daily press briefing typically includes a summary of the secretary of state's schedule, any upcoming trips by the secretary, the president of the United States, or other distinguished State Department officials including under secretaries and assistant secretaries, and official reactions and positions of the U.S. government on certain news of the day, followed by Q&A with journalists attending the briefing. A tradition that began during the tenure of John Foster Dulles as secretary of state in the 1950s, ^[5] the daily press briefing is on-the-record, and is recorded and made available on the State Department's website.

The State Department spokesperson will also often accompany the secretary of state on travel to assist with press conferences.

List of spokespeople

#	Spokesperson		Tenure	President	Secretary of State
1		Michael J. McDermott [6]	1927–1945	Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman	Frank B. Kellogg, Henry L. Stimson, Cordell Hull, Edward Stettinius, Jr.
2		Roger Tubby [7]	1945–1948	Harry S. Truman	James F. Byrnes, George C. Marshall
3		Lincoln White [8]	1955–1963	Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy	John Foster Dulles, Christian Herter, Dean Rusk
4		Robert J. McCloskey [9]	1964–1973	Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon	Dean Rusk, William P. Rogers
5		Carl E. Bartch [10]	1966–1970
6		Robert Anderson [11]	1974–1976	Gerald Ford	Henry Kissinger
7		Hodding Carter III [12]	1977–1980	Jimmy Carter	Cyrus Vance
8		William J. Dyess [13]	1980–1981		Edmund Muskie
9		Dean E. Fischer [14]	1981–1982	Ronald Reagan	Alexander Haig
10		Robert John Hughes [15]	1982–1985		George P. Shultz
11		Bernard Kalb [16]	1985–1986
12		Charles Edgar Redman [17]	1986–1989
13		Margaret D. Tutwiler [18]	1989–1992	George H. W. Bush	James Baker
14		Richard Boucher [19]	1992–1993		Lawrence Eagleburger
15		Mike McCurry [20]	1993–1995	Bill Clinton	Warren Christopher
16		R. Nicholas Burns [21]	1995–1997
17		James Rubin [22]	1997–2000		Madeleine Albright
18		Richard Boucher [19]	2001–2005	George W. Bush	Colin Powell
19		Sean McCormack [23]	2005–2009		Condoleezza Rice
20		Ian C. Kelly	2009–2010	Barack Obama	Hillary Clinton
21		Philip J. Crowley	2010–2011
22		Victoria Nuland	2011–2013
23		Jen Psaki	2013–2015		John Kerry
24		Marie Harf	2015
25		John Kirby	2015–2017
26		Mark Toner	2017	Donald Trump	Rex Tillerson
27		Heather Nauert [24]	2017–2019		Rex Tillerson, Mike Pompeo
28		Morgan Ortagus	2019–2021		Mike Pompeo
29		Ned Price	2021–2023	Joe Biden	Antony Blinken
30		Matthew Miller	2023–2025
31		Tammy Bruce	2025–present	Donald Trump	Marco Rubio

References

1. "Bureau of Public Affairs: Senior Official Biographies". U.S. Department of State. October 2015. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
2. "Victoria Nuland to be State Department spokesman". Foreign Policy . May 16, 2011. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
3. "Biographies for Public Affairs and Public Diplomacy: Senior Officials". August 10, 2015. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
4. "John Kirby". U.S. Department of State. December 11, 2015. Retrieved March 10, 2016.
5. "In first month of Trump presidency, State Department has been sidelined". Washington Post . February 22, 2017. Retrieved February 25, 2017.
6. Gleijeses, Piero (1991). Shattered Hope: The Guatemalan Revolution and the United States, 1944–1954. Princeton University Press.
7. Neal, Steve (2003). HST: Memories of the Truman Years. Southern Illinois University Press.
8. "Lincoln White is Dead at 77; U.S. Spokesman in Cold War". The New York Times . April 28, 1983. Retrieved November 28, 2015.
9. "Robert J. McCloskey, State Dept. Spokesman, Dies at 74". The New York Times . November 30, 1996. Retrieved November 21, 2015.
10. "Carl E. Bartch Dies at 78". Washington Post . October 2, 1989. Retrieved November 21, 2015.
11. "Robert Anderson Papers". Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library . Retrieved November 21, 2015.
12. "William Hodding Carter III (1935–)". U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian . Retrieved November 21, 2015.
13. "William Jennings Dyess (1929–1966)". U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian . Retrieved November 21, 2015.
14. "Dean E. Fischer (1936–)". U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian . Retrieved November 21, 2015.
15. "(Robert) John Hughes (1930–)". U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian . Retrieved November 21, 2015.
16. "Bernard Kalb: From NBC to the State Department". Brookings Institution. October 2, 2012. Retrieved November 21, 2015.
17. "Charles Edgar Redman (1943–)". U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian . Retrieved November 21, 2015.
18. "Margaret Debardeleben Tutwiler (1950–)". U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian . Retrieved November 21, 2015.
19. "Richard A. Boucher". U.S. Department of State. February 21, 2006. Retrieved November 21, 2015.
20. "And the good news is...: A conversation with former White House Press Secretaries Dana Perino and Mike McCurry". American Enterprise Institute. April 23, 2015. Retrieved November 21, 2015.
21. "Nicholas Burns". U.S. Department of State. Retrieved November 21, 2015.
22. "James Rubin". Washington Speakers Bureau . Retrieved November 21, 2015.
23. "Department Spokesman Sean McCormack". U.S. Department of State. July 18, 2005. Retrieved November 21, 2015.
24. "Department Press Briefing - April 27, 2017". U.S. Department of State. Retrieved July 15, 2017.

External links

• Daily Press Briefings at the U.S. State Department