President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the United States will stop providing roughly $4 billion in annual aid to Israel by the end of 2026 under an agreement he said he reached with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Trump said Netanyahu proposed ending the assistance because Israel no longer needs it. He said Israel could continue purchasing American weapons and that Washington would help if necessary.
The funding “gets cut off at the end of the year,” Trump told Fox News’ Fox & Friends during a telephone interview on the morning of the midterm elections.
“Now we’ll help Israel if they need it,” he added.
Existing agreement runs through 2028
The existing 10-year memorandum of understanding, signed in 2016, covers fiscal years 2019 through 2028 and calls for $38 billion in military assistance, subject to congressional appropriations.
The annual baseline totals $3.8 billion: $3.3 billion in Foreign Military Financing and $500 million for joint missile defense programs, according to the Congressional Research Service. Trump used a rounded $4 billion figure.
Congress has also approved emergency supplemental military assistance outside that annual framework.
Trump did not specify which funding accounts the change would cover or explain how it would affect money Congress has already appropriated. He presented the year-end deadline without outlining an implementation plan.
Netanyahu outlined a decade-long aid phaseout in a CBS interview broadcast May 10. Trump’s timetable would move considerably faster.
Trump cites election politics
Trump also tied the decision to domestic politics, saying Democrats use the aid payments to attack Republican candidates. He argued that Israel’s economic success allows the two countries to end the payments while preserving their partnership.
U.S. aid to Israel also figured in U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Texas) 2025 interview with Tucker Carlson, as The Dallas Express previously reported.
Netanyahu’s office did not immediately comment on Trump’s remarks, Reuters reported.
Provided by Dallas Express
