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Welcome back to Foreign Policy<\/em>\u2019s Situation Report, where we dare anyone to start a third party to disrupt the Haltiwanger-Iyengar dichotomy. (Elon Musk is trying to do exactly that to the Democrats and Republicans, which Rishi wrote about<\/a> this week.)<\/p>\n Alright, here\u2019s what\u2019s on tap for the day: Trump<\/strong>\u2019s growing impatience with Putin<\/strong>, more uncertainty over Iran talks<\/strong>, and an AI<\/strong> Rubio <\/strong>prank caller.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n U.S. President Donald Trump appears to have lost patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin after months of failed efforts to secure a peace deal between Moscow and Kyiv\u2014and as Russia continues to pummel Ukraine<\/a> with massive missile and drone attacks.<\/p>\n In a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Trump offered one of his sharpest rebukes of the Russian leader to date, saying<\/a>, \u201cWe get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth. He\u2019s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.\u201d Trump, who had what he characterized as an unproductive phone call<\/a> with the Russian president last week, added<\/a> that he\u2019s \u201cnot happy\u201d with Putin \u201cbecause he\u2019s killing a lot of people.\u201d<\/p>\n On Monday, Trump said<\/a> that he had approved sending more defensive weapons to Ukraine\u2014just days after the Pentagon announced a pause on some arms deliveries to the country\u2014and he signaled on Tuesday that he\u2019s open to supporting a Russia sanctions bill<\/a> pushed by GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham.<\/p>\n If Trump continues in this direction, it would represent a remarkable shift in course.<\/p>\n Previously, Trump frequently railed against U.S. assistance to Ukraine\u2014and infamously lambasted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the matter in a heated Oval Office meeting back in February. But Trump and Zelensky are now on better terms. After meeting with Zelensky at the NATO summit in The Hague in late June, Trump said<\/a> his Ukrainian counterpart \u201ccouldn\u2019t have been nicer.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump for years has also faced accusations of being far too friendly with Putin, a ruthless authoritarian who is widely regarded as a major threat to democracy and global stability. Critics of Trump have long been troubled by his seeming admiration<\/a> for Putin, particularly given that the Russian president is a former KGB operative who is skilled in the art of manipulation.<\/p>\n Trump has repeatedly brushed off such criticism. (In 2016, for instance, Trump explicitly said he didn\u2019t admire Putin but that he thought Putin was a strong leader.) And until recently, Trump has operated under the notion that maintaining amicable relations with Putin was good for U.S.-Russia ties and would boost the chances of achieving peace in Ukraine.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, experts on Russia and Putin warned that Trump\u2019s all-carrots, no-stick<\/a> approach would be unlikely to achieve results.<\/p>\n Trump now seems to be waking up to the idea that Putin is not genuinely interested in ending the war.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we\u2019re actually witnessing the education of Donald Trump about Russia in particular\u201d but also international affairs more generally, Kevin Ryan, a retired U.S. brigadier general and former U.S. defense attach\u00e9 to Russia, told SitRep. Trump is a \u201cbusinessman,\u201d Ryan said, and wanted to make a \u201cbusiness deal\u201d to end the war, but \u201che\u2019s come up against the reality that this is not a war that\u2019s going to be won at the negotiating table.\u201d<\/p>\n Ryan, who taught a national security strategy course at the Kyiv School of Economics this year, said that people he\u2019s spoken with in Ukraine are \u201cencouraged by Trump\u2019s change of rhetoric\u201d and his decision to resume weapons shipments. Yet he said that Ukrainians have also \u201csteeled themselves\u201d for reduced U.S. support.<\/p>\n It\u2019s an open question how long Trump\u2019s more supportive stance toward Kyiv will last. The Trump administration\u2019s policy on Ukraine has been all over the place, as evidenced by the recent flip-flop on weapons shipments. Trump has dodged questions over who ordered the pause, but reports suggest it was the result of a surprise decision<\/a> by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Officials have said<\/a> that the pause was due to concerns over dwindling U.S. stockpiles.<\/p>\n To move the needle toward a peace deal, Ukraine will need a lot more \u201cconsistency\u201d from the Trump administration in terms of support, Ryan said. \u201cThis war cannot be won by Europe and Ukraine alone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n European leaders and officials remain cautiously optimistic about Trump\u2019s security commitments, bolstered by an acknowledgment that the continent must share more of the burden. That\u2019s what we heard from multiple foreign and defense ministers we spoke to at the NATO summit<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n But Trump\u2019s wild-card tendencies are always on their minds.<\/p>\n \u201cThis year the new president has \u2026 introduced some kind of unpredictability,\u201d Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, who previously served as prime minister during Trump\u2019s first term, told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on Tuesday.<\/p>\n Still, Rasmussen told SitRep on the sidelines of the event that, after his engagements with the Trump administration in Washington this week, he feels Europe \u201ccan count on\u201d U.S. engagement in Ukraine. \u201cI was left with the clear impression that they now share our analysis that the real troublemaker is Putin.\u201d<\/p>\n Rodney B. \u201cBrad\u201d Blakestad<\/strong> is now director of the National Quantum Coordination Office at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.<\/p>\n James \u201cJim\u201d Caggy<\/strong> has been designated assistant secretary of defense for mission capabilities<\/a> at the U.S. Department of Defense.<\/p>\n Nick Adams<\/strong>, a far-right commentator, Trump supporter, and self-described \u201calpha male\u201d known in large part for posting frequently<\/a> on social media about the restaurant chain Hooters, has been nominated<\/a> as U.S. ambassador to Malaysia.<\/p>\n What should be high on your radar, if it isn\u2019t already.<\/em><\/p>\n Are U.S.-Iran talks happening? <\/strong>Trump on Monday said<\/a> that Washington and Tehran would soon resume nuclear talks, just weeks after he ordered historic strikes on the country\u2019s nuclear facilities. \u201cWe have scheduled Iran talks,\u201d Trump said while meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. \u201cThey want to talk.\u201d But this appeared to be news to Tehran, with Iran\u2019s Foreign Ministry denying<\/a> that Iran had requested talks.<\/p>\n Though Iran\u2019s top diplomat signaled this week that Tehran is open to returning to diplomacy, he also said<\/a> that his country has \u201cgood reason to have doubts about further dialogue.\u201d For now, nothing appears to be officially on the books.<\/p>\n This all comes amid ongoing questions about the full extent of the damage from the U.S. strikes. Trump has repeatedly said that the U.S. strikes destroyed Iran\u2019s nuclear program\u2014and has questioned whether pursuing talks with Iran would even serve a purpose anymore\u2014but assessments are ongoing and experts have expressed skepticism about the administration\u2019s claims of success.<\/p>\n Gaza clinic attacked. <\/strong>An Israeli airstrike near a medical facility in Gaza reportedly<\/a> killed more than a dozen people, including several children, on Thursday. The strike targeted the town of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza as people were lining up to receive nutritional support at a health clinic run by an American aid organization called Project HOPE, the organization\u2019s regional director told<\/a> the New York Times<\/em>. The Israeli military said it was targeting a Hamas fighter who participated in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the current conflict and expressed regret over \u201charm to uninvolved individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n U.S. and Arab mediators are continuing to negotiate a proposal for a 60-day cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, which was largely the subject of Netanyahu\u2019s visit to Washington<\/a> this week, but progress on a deal has been slow.<\/p>\n The United States, meanwhile, imposed sanctions<\/a> on Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories. Albanese has called for trade and arms embargoes on Israel over what she has characterized as its \u201cgenocidal campaign\u201d in Gaza.<\/p>\n Marco speaking. <\/strong>A person pretending to be U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio used AI voice-cloning software to call at least three foreign ministers, a sitting member of Congress, and a U.S. governor, according to a State Department cable obtained<\/a> by the Washington Post.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n The impostor created an account on Signal (yes, that Signal<\/a>) using the display name \u201c[email\u00a0protected]<\/span><\/a>,\u201d leaving voicemails for at least two targets and texting a third, the cable said. The State Department told the Post<\/em> it was investigating the breach but declined to reveal the names of the individuals targeted.<\/p>\n