Trump Says US Will End $4 Billion in Annual Aid to Israel After 2026
Trump said the US will stop about $4 billion a year in aid to Israel after 2026 but keep selling it weapons. The aid agreement runs to September 2028.
The United States will stop giving Israel roughly $4 billion a year in aid once 2026 ends, President Donald Trump said in a Fox News phone interview on Election Day, while adding that Israel will still be able to buy American weapons.
“We’ve already agreed that by the end of this year we won’t be paying Israel. Now we’ll help Israel if they need it,” Trump told the “Fox & Friends” program on Tuesday, according to Reuters and Fox News. He said he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had made the deal months ago and that Netanyahu raised the idea.
Trump called the support “things and money” and said Israel “no longer” needs it. He also tied the move to politics, naming Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and calling the aid “a bad talking point” for Republicans, Reuters reported.
A 2028 agreement still on the books
The current memorandum of understanding gives Israel about $3.8 billion in military aid each year and does not expire until September 2028, according to Reuters and Deutsche Welle. Trump did not explain how the funding would be halted early. Congress authorized the funding in a 2020 law, but the House and Senate must pass appropriations each year to release it, Reuters and Fox News reported.
Neither the White House nor Netanyahu’s office answered Reuters’ requests for comment. Netanyahu said in an October interview with Israeli television that the country should get used to the idea that large American defense aid would not continue, Reuters reported.
Reaction in Washington and Israel
Republican Rep. Don Bacon told CNN his main concern was that “the Israelis didn’t know about it,” according to Reuters. Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California wrote on X that “Zero aid Israel” would be on his party’s agenda. In Israel, opposition figure Gadi Eisenkot said the security establishment was learning about the change through the media, Reuters reported.
Developing: Trump has not said how the aid would end before the 2028 agreement expires, and Democrats, who won both chambers of Congress on Tuesday, will write next year’s spending bills.
Sources: Reuters, Fox News, Deutsche Welle.
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