When President Trump issued his ultimatum last week asking President Volodymyr Zelensky to sign the proposed Ukraine Peace Plan by Thanksgiving, he said something that was quite troubling. He threatened to stop U.S. intelligence sharing with Ukraine and cut off further arms shipments if President Zelensky didn’t comply. That threat was attention-grabbing because of the role that Europe currently plays in the war.

After President Trump returned to office at the beginning of this year, he declared that the U.S. would not spend any more money to help defend Ukraine. The Europeans have stepped in to fill that void, on top of what they did in the past and plan to do going forward. Europe is now providing funds to buy American weapons to send to Ukraine.

President Trump’s threat to cut off those weapons supplies implies that he is willing to stop selling American-made munitions to Europe for transfer to Ukraine. He is clearly bent on stopping the war by any means necessary. If it takes Ukraine’s capitulation to do it, so be it, it appears.

For years, successive U.S. presidents and their administration officials cautioned Europe against relying excessively on Russian energy. European leaders failed to heed the warnings. It took Vladimir Putin cutting off energy supplies to the continent following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine for the Europeans to finally realize their mistake.

In trying to wean itself completely off Russian energy by 2027, Europe has today become heavily reliant on the U.S. for some of its energy supplies. The bulk of liquefied natural gas (LNG) produced in the U.S. is now exported to Europe. Until now, it was unthinkable that anyone would fear America ever using energy as a weapon against Europe the way Russia did. But in the last several months, a few European voices have highlighted the vulnerability. Europe’s trust in America is clearly starting to wane, and that is quite regrettable.

President Trump has talked repeatedly about his desire to have Russia reintegrated into the world economy. He also wants it reinstated as a member of a reconstituted G8. But it is difficult to see how any European head of state can shake the hands of Vladimir Putin and sit in a conference with him after all the atrocities that Russian forces have committed in Ukraine on his orders. Already, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron have said they oppose any attempts to reconstruct the G8.

But what if President Trump were to insist on rehabilitating Russia and European leaders kept thwarting him? Would he use American energy as a weapon to bludgeon them into obedience? That is apparently what some in Europe are starting to fear. They say that if President Trump can refuse arms sales to try to bend both Europe and Ukraine to his will, then it is not far-fetched to think that he will do the same thing to them with energy. His hardball tactics on tariffs are still fresh in their minds.

Sadly, our staunchest allies are now thinking that we could someday become as untrustworthy as the Russians. This erosion of faith in America is something that our political and business leaders should take extremely seriously. It risks damaging not only our national security, but also our economy.