diff --git a/Lib/test/test_xml_etree.py b/Lib/test/test_xml_etree.py
index 38be2cd437f200..4d0acc7fc04bb6 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_xml_etree.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_xml_etree.py
@@ -218,6 +218,42 @@ class ElementTreeTest(unittest.TestCase):
     def serialize_check(self, elem, expected):
         self.assertEqual(serialize(elem), expected)
 
+    def test_constructor(self):
+        # Test constructor behavior.
+
+        with self.assertRaises(TypeError):
+            tree = ET.ElementTree("")
+        with self.assertRaises(TypeError):
+            tree = ET.ElementTree(ET.ElementTree())
+
+        # Test _setroot as well, since it also sets the _root object.
+
+        tree = ET.ElementTree()
+        with self.assertRaises(TypeError):
+            tree._setroot("")
+        with self.assertRaises(TypeError):
+            tree._setroot(ET.ElementTree())
+
+        # Make sure it accepts an Element-like object.
+
+        class ElementLike:
+            def __init__(self):
+                self.tag = "tag"
+                self.text = None
+                self.tail = None
+            def iter(self):
+                pass
+            def items(self):
+                pass
+            def __len__(self):
+                pass
+
+        element_like = ElementLike()
+        try:
+            tree = ET.ElementTree(element_like)
+        except Exception as err:
+            self.fail(err)
+
     def test_interface(self):
         # Test element tree interface.
 
diff --git a/Lib/xml/etree/ElementTree.py b/Lib/xml/etree/ElementTree.py
index 44ab5d18624e73..4bef7d5710b7c0 100644
--- a/Lib/xml/etree/ElementTree.py
+++ b/Lib/xml/etree/ElementTree.py
@@ -120,8 +120,9 @@ class ParseError(SyntaxError):
 
 def iselement(element):
     """Return True if *element* appears to be an Element."""
-    return hasattr(element, 'tag')
-
+    return (hasattr(element, 'tag') and hasattr(element, 'text') and
+        hasattr(element, 'tail') and callable(element.iter) and
+        callable(element.items) and callable(element.__len__))
 
 class Element:
     """An XML element.
@@ -527,7 +528,9 @@ class ElementTree:
 
     """
     def __init__(self, element=None, file=None):
-        # assert element is None or iselement(element)
+        if element is not None and not iselement(element):
+            raise TypeError(f"element must be xml.etree.Element, "
+                            f"not {type(element).__name__}")
         self._root = element # first node
         if file:
             self.parse(file)
@@ -543,7 +546,9 @@ def _setroot(self, element):
         with the given element.  Use with care!
 
         """
-        # assert iselement(element)
+        if not iselement(element):
+            raise TypeError(f"element must be xml.etree.Element, "
+                            f"not {type(element).__name__}")
         self._root = element
 
     def parse(self, source, parser=None):
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2025-06-22-02-16-17.gh-issue-135640.FXyFL6.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2025-06-22-02-16-17.gh-issue-135640.FXyFL6.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..49d1c5fead8843
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2025-06-22-02-16-17.gh-issue-135640.FXyFL6.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+Address bug where calling :func:`xml.etree.ElementTree.ElementTree.write` on
+an ElementTree object with an invalid root element would blank the file
+passed to ``write`` if it already existed.