Trump Announces End of US Military Aid to Israel

The United States provides the largest share of military assistance to any foreign nation, a relationship that has sustained itself for decades. President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that this support will end after the current year concludes.

Speaking by phone to Fox News on the morning of the Congressional midterm elections, Trump said the United States will stop providing roughly $4 billion in annual military aid to Israel once the calendar year ends. He claimed he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reached an agreement on the matter months earlier. "They're fine with it because they've become a very successful country. They don't need it," Trump said. He added that the US would continue to help Israel if necessary, calling the two nations the greatest of all allies.

The announcement contradicts the standing ten-year memorandum of understanding on US military assistance, which began in 2019. That agreement provides Israel with $3.8 billion per year and is not scheduled to expire until the fall of 2028. The current deal requires that most of the money be spent on weapons manufactured in the United States. Trump noted on Tuesday that the US makes the greatest weapons in the world.

Israeli officials said they were taken by surprise by the timing and method of the disclosure. The Walla news site reported that officials in Israel's Finance Ministry were surprised by the announcement. One official stated that no formal document was submitted from the Prime Minister's Office regarding the end of aid. The ministry knew of the intention to end assistance but was surprised it would happen immediately. A senior defense official told the Kan public broadcaster that the defense establishment did not expect the announcement, certainly not today. The official said Israel would study the implications of a decision that had yet to reach professional officials.

Gadi Eisenkot, chairman of the Yashar party, demanded answers from Netanyahu. Eisenkot said the fact that the defense establishment and Israeli citizens are learning about the change through the media shows that Netanyahu's conduct poses a real danger. "He can no longer be trusted and must be replaced," Eisenkot said. The Prime Minister's Office offered no immediate comment.

Netanyahu has previously spoken about ending US military aid, but he described the process as gradual over a coming decade. In a June letter to a US congressman, he wrote that the time had come for Israel to move from aid recipient to partner. In January, he told The Economist that he hoped to end the aid within ten years. In May, he told US broadcaster CBS that he wanted support to reach zero. Trump insisted that Netanyahu raised the idea first, stating that the premier understood the issue was a point of contention. Trump also suggested he wanted to deny critics a talking point, singling out Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee in Michigan's 2026 midterm election. "Why should we suffer the slings from lunatics like an El-Sayed when they don't need it," Trump said.

The United States has provided more than $300 billion in economic and military assistance to Israel since 1948, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. Under the 2025 budget, the Israeli Defense Ministry's allocation reached a record 110 billion New Israeli shekels, or $29 billion, out of a total defense budget of 136 billion shekels, or $36.9 billion. Part of Israel's push to end the aid stems from frustration during the Gaza war, when several allies halted arms supplies. American public support for Israel has fallen since the war began with the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre. A June Quinnipiac University poll found 48 percent of voters and 66 percent of Democrats believe the United States is too supportive of Israel, up from 16 percent and 20 percent in 2017.