{"id":113480,"date":"2026-08-29T18:23:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T18:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/113480\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T18:23:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T18:23:12","slug":"the-devastating-lever-trump-could-pull-on-the-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/113480\/","title":{"rendered":"The devastating lever Trump could pull on the UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

The UK should reduce its reliance on American energy supplies, analysts have warned, amid fears Donald Trump<\/a> could decide to cut back fuel exports to Britain.<\/p>\n

Concerns have been reportedly growing within the energy sector<\/a> and in Whitehall about an over-reliance on American imports at a time when relations between London and Washington<\/a> are strained.<\/p>\n

The UK is a net importer of natural gas and petroleum,<\/a> mostly from the US and Norway. By 2035, the UK is set to rely on liquefied natural gas (LNG) from America for over 60 per cent of its overall gas supplies, according to assessments from energy research firm Wood Mackenzie<\/a>, which warned that \u201crecent history highlights the risks of reliance on a single country\u201d.<\/p>\n

The special relationship has suffered a series of recent blows, including Donald Trump threatening to seize Greenland from a mutual ally<\/a>, insulting the British contribution to the Afghanistan war<\/a> and launching a war against Iran<\/a> that the UK has broadly refused to engage with<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, it was reported<\/a> that No 10 was worried about the risk of Trump banning LNG exports to the UK following his economic policy flip-flops and disagreements over the Iran war.<\/p>\n

The White House has so far rejected claims<\/a> it will ban oil exports. <\/p>\n

Trump \u2018willing to pull significant number of levers\u2019 to achieve goals<\/p>\n

Maxwell Marlow, director of public affairs at the Adam Smith Institute think tank, said that the US President has \u201can aggressive negotiating style, meaning that he is willing to pull a number of significant levers to achieve his ends\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the UK, that could mean limiting the amount of LNG \u2013 which makes up 15 per cent of our total imports \u2013 whether that is in foreign policy or trade disputes,\u201d he said, suggesting that the UK must consider North Sea drilling<\/a> to shore up its own energy supply.<\/p>\n

Dr Katie Pruszynski, a political psychologist and vice chair of the American Politics Group, said that Trump using gas exports as \u201cleverage\u201d would not be surprising, but rather in keeping with \u201chow he conducted business for decades\u201d.<\/p>\n

The US President has a history of using economic tools against his allies, launching \u2013 before largely retracting \u2013 widespread tariffs in early 2025, and this week escalating a trade war with Canada<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wants to see how far he can go,\u201d Pruszynski said of the President. \u201cHe\u2019s not getting what he wants on really anything, particularly stuff that\u2019s not even linked to energy. People aren\u2019t playing ball with Iran and his demands for assistance on defence. The UK has held really quite far back.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Trump\u2019s] history is to make the bluster, to deliver the threat and then not actually follow through with it. But there is the risk with him that when he feels backed into a corner, he does sometimes take that step,\u201d she added. \u201cLook at the tariffs<\/a>. The US economy has taken a massive hit \u2013 people are paying more for their everyday goods.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam Bell, partner at consultancy Stonehaven and a former head of energy strategy in the UK government, said that \u201cwe assume this winter, we can rely upon American energy\u201d, but \u201cif we can\u2019t for whatever reason\u2026 then we would be very much in trouble\u201d. <\/p>\n

Bell suggested the US could ban or reduce LNG exports in a bid to shore up fuel supply at home in the run-up to the midterm elections<\/a>, where the cost of living is set to be a central issue.<\/p>\n

The Iran war, which was started by the US and Israel in February, has spiked fuel prices worldwide, including within America. <\/p>\n

Polling suggests the Democrats are now favoured on the cost of living<\/a>, with just 31 per cent of \u200bAmericans<\/a> supporting US military action against Iran, while Trump\u2019s approval rating is at a record low of 33 per cent.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving a degree of security [on the UK\u2019s fuel supply] feels important,\u201d Bell said. \u201cCertainly the Americans have given no indication that they\u2019re going to cut off gas to the rest of the world quite yet, if they did then we would be very much in trouble,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In the long term, Bell thinks the Government will \u201clook at having more gas storage\u201d to make the UK less vulnerable to market fluctuation and the decision of other countries.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The Government has] made a lot of warm noises about funding energy efficiency,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve yet to see any real details of that, but giving people the ability to access some cash, to do something to the house before the winter would be helpful, especially swapping out a gas boiler for some sort of electric device.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GRAIN,The LNG tanker, Energy Glory, in Maryland, USA. By 2035, the UK is set to rely on LNG from America for over 60 per cent of its overall gas supplies, according to estimates (Photo: Dan Kitwood\/Getty)<\/p>\n

But Dr Ksenia Kirkham, a senior lecturer in economic warfare at King\u2019s College London, said that a complete suspension of LNG sales to the UK would \u201cmost likely require an exceptionally serious political dispute that Trump viewed as directly affecting core US strategic interests\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my view, it is not very likely. Although Trump may use the prospect of economic pressure rhetorically to strengthen his negotiating position, actual cuts to LNG supplies would run counter to important US commercial interests,\u201d Kirkham said.<\/p>\n

It comes as Trump announced a deal with Venezuela<\/a> to take over a fifth of the country\u2019s vast oil reserves, nine months after the US military captured its president, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a>, to face federal narco-terrorism and drug trafficking charges in the US.<\/p>\n

Kirkham said that this would be unlikely to change the US\u2019s energy market in the short term, because it would take some time to set up the infrastructure needed.<\/p>\n

The economic warfare expert said that UK\u2019s reliance on LNG supplies is \u201csomething that should be reconsidered in the longer term\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cBritain should strengthen domestic energy resilience by reducing dependence on imports and limiting exposure to external market and political shocks,\u201d she said. \u201cThe problem is not so much Trump\u2019s threats but the UK\u2019s broader dependence on imported gas and limited gas storage capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Government spokesperson said: \u201cThe UK has a diverse and resilient energy supply and gas will continue to play a key role as we transition to clean, homegrown energy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UK should reduce its reliance on American energy supplies, analysts have warned, amid fears Donald Trump could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[361,2737,8354,1573,507,168,5,6],"class_list":["post-113480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","tag-donald-trump","tag-energy-crisis","tag-gas","tag-special-relationship","tag-tariffs","tag-trade","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/117180196841897245","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}