Conflicting U.S. messaging helped cause “major political and psychological shock” in Poland over the past week after the U.S. canceled a planned deployment of thousands of American troops to the country, according to a U.S. diplomatic cable obtained by POLITICO.

U.S. President Donald Trump reversed the decision this week, but the political damage to the relationship may be hard to repair. Polish officials saw the cancellation of the deployment as a breach of trust, according to the Wednesday cable from the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw.

Around 4,000 troops had been slated for the deployment, mainly to Poland and some to neighboring countries, before it was halted by the Pentagon on May 13. Trump changed course late Thursday, saying he would send 5,000 troops to Poland, though it is not clear where they would come from.

The period in between included Polish responses of “disappointment,” “bewilderment,” and “genuine alarm,” according to the cable, which is marked sensitive but unclassified and signed by Tom Rose, the U.S. ambassador to Poland.

“The dominant emotional reaction is one of perceived betrayal, particularly given repeated public characterizations of Poland by President Trump as America’s most reliable and committed ally in Europe,” states the cable, whose recipients included Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s office.

The cable added that inconsistent U.S. communications going back to the administration of former President Joe Biden also contributed to the problem. Biden approved the rotations as a response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

“The rotational deployments initiated after Russia’s 2022 invasion were never intended to constitute permanent basing, but that reality was never consistently or effectively communicated publicly,” the cable states. “Temporary rotational presence gradually became understood inside Poland as a semipermanent security guarantee, something we did precious little to counter.”

Asked for comment, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said Trump’s decision to send troops in the end was rooted in a broader strategy for the region.

“The president has simultaneously restored peace through strength while successfully encouraging European allies to take greater responsibility for their own defense,” Kelly said.

The State Department declined to comment on the cable. Spokespeople for the Pentagon referred questions to the White House.

Poland has done more than any other NATO ally to increase defense spending in recent years — buying tens of billions worth of U.S.-made weaponry and footing the bill to house around 10,000 U.S. troops on its soil — making sure to stay in line with Trump’s defense-related demands. The U.S. president has frequently praised Warsaw as a result, even as he’s had friction with other NATO members, such as Germany.

The decision to cancel the deployment hurt the conservative Polish President Karol Nawrocki, one of Trump’s political allies. A senior aide to Nawrocki told POLITICO on Friday that “chaotic communication” in Washington left allies in Warsaw and elsewhere in the dark about American plans.

“I’m pretty sure that it was not in line with the decision of the White House,” Marcin Przydacz said, describing the episode as “a bit of misunderstanding within the Pentagon.”

The Trump administration had expressed a desire to stop the rotations that began under Biden, especially with several U.S. Army brigades now regularly deploying to the U.S. southern border, straining the Army’s formations.

The past week’s whiplash risks “fueling pressure to move away from American defense systems, accelerating momentum behind EU defense integration at America’s expense, and driving anti-American political and media narratives across the region,” the cable stated.

The Pentagon’s top generals fanned out across Europe this week to explain to worried allies what the plan is — if there is one — for reducing U.S. troop presence on the continent.

Chair of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan Caine met with NATO defense ministers in Brussels and Vice Chair Gen. Christopher Mahoney huddled with Polish military and civilian officials in Warsaw.

Polish officials also rushed to Washington this week to get a better sense of U.S. thinking. Polish Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz talked to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday.

The U.S. Embassy in Warsaw’s cable offered some suggestions for how to counter the negative effects. One was to reduce the large rotational armored presence while establishing a “smaller but clearly enduring” U.S. troop role.

Such a footprint in Poland could focus on “command-and-control, logistics, [surveillance], prepositioned equipment, sustainment, air defense, and rapid reinforcement capability.”

One upside to that option is that it would “save millions of dollars in costs to rotate out an armored brigade every nine months.”