Trump says the US will stop about $4 billion in annual military aid to Israel by year-end
In a Fox News interview on Election Day, President Donald Trump said the United States will stop paying Israel about $4 billion a year by the end of 2026 under a deal he reached with Benjamin Netanyahu. He gave no details, the current accord runs to 2028, and Congress controls the funding.
President Donald Trump said on Tuesday, 3 November, that the United States will stop providing about $4 billion a year in aid to Israel by the end of 2026, describing it as the result of an agreement with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He made the remarks in a phone interview with Fox News' "Fox & Friends" as Americans voted in the midterm elections.
"We've already agreed that by the end of this year we won't be paying Israel," Trump said. "Now we'll help Israel if they need it." He said the deal was struck "months ago", that Israel no longer needs the money, and that Israel can still buy US weapons "whenever they want". He also said the move would take away a talking point that he claimed left-wing Democrats use against Republicans.
Trump gave no details on how the funding would be stopped. The aid he appears to refer to is the 10-year memorandum of understanding signed in 2016, which provides $3.8 billion a year, mostly to buy American weapons, for fiscal years 2019 to 2028. Ending it early would be a major change. The money is appropriated by Congress each year, so it was not immediately clear whether the president can end it on his own.
The White House had not clarified the statement when it was first reported, and the Israeli prime minister's office had not commented. In a May interview with CBS, Netanyahu said he wanted to "draw down" US financial support to zero over the next decade, and to start now. Analysts quoted by PolitiFact note that even if the grants end, Israel would still be able to buy US arms with its own money, and billions of dollars in US loan guarantees remain.
US support for Israel has become more divisive in American politics since the war in Gaza began in October 2023. A September Quinnipiac poll found that 48% of voters think the United States is too supportive of Israel, up from 16% in 2017.