Trump says US will stop $4 billion annual aid to Israel by year-end

What Trump said on Election Day

Speaking to Fox News' Fox and Friends on the morning of the US midterm elections, Trump said Washington gives Israel $4 billion a year and that the payments would stop at the end of this year. He said Israel no longer needs the money, adding that the US would still help Israel if it needed it.

Trump said he had discussed ending the aid with Netanyahu for a couple of years and that the Israeli prime minister had himself raised it. He also tied the announcement to US politics, saying aid to Israel had become a talking point used against Republicans by Democrats, and he named Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, a vocal critic of US support for Israel. Pressed on whether he meant military aid or a cash payment, Trump said it could be defined either way, describing it as $4 billion of things and money.

The aid framework he was talking about

The current US aid arrangement is a 10-year memorandum of understanding signed in 2016, under which the US committed $38 billion in military assistance to Israel for the years 2019 to 2028. That works out at $3.8 billion a year, made up of $3.3 billion in Foreign Military Financing and $500 million for joint missile defence programmes, so Trump's $4 billion figure is a rounded number above the precise annual amount.

The arrangement is not a treaty, and the money is appropriated by Congress, which means a president cannot end it unilaterally. The US and Israel began formal talks in May on a new agreement to replace the memorandum, though it is not clear whether any framework is in place. Israel is allowed to use the aid to buy US weapons, so the money ultimately flows to American arms manufacturers.

Reaction in Israel and Washington

Reaction in Israel was sharp. Gadi Eisenkot, Netanyahu's main political rival, who is also trying to form a coalition government, said the defence establishment was learning about a change in the strategic relationship through the media, and that Netanyahu could no longer be trusted and must be replaced. The head of Israel's left-wing Democrats party, Yair Golan, called the announcement a huge failure, saying a responsible prime minister would have fought to increase American aid, not eliminate it.

Analysts urged caution about the timeline. Thomas Warrick of the Atlantic Council told Al Jazeera that Trump will probably not cut off military aid by the end of 2026, because weapons programmes on missile defence and counter-drone warfare cannot easily be switched to foreign military sales, and he expects military assistance to be phased out during 2027 instead. The US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and there was no confirmation from Netanyahu's office.

Why the timing is contested

The announcement came on Election Day, one week after Israel's own election, in which Trump had endorsed Netanyahu, and in the middle of Netanyahu's efforts to form a coalition to remain in power. Former Middle East negotiator Aaron David Miller called the timing awkward and questioned whether the administration would follow through, particularly if the US resumes military operations against Iran.

US support for Israel has become increasingly polarising in American politics. In July, the House of Representatives voted 314 to 104 to defeat an amendment that would have cut off aid to Israel, though nearly half of House Democrats supported it. Trump himself has previously said Israel can buy whatever it wants, and Netanyahu has said publicly that the end of US aid is coming, but never on such a short timeline.

Editorial disclosure

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