Trump says US will end nearly $4 billion in annual Israel military aid by year's end

On the morning American voters went to the polls for the midterm elections, President Donald Trump went on the Fox & Friends morning show and said the United States would stop paying Israel its annual military aid by the end of the year. The aid amounts to nearly $4 billion, or about €3.5 billion. Trump said Israel was "fine" with the change and that the two countries had settled it months ago.

He described it as a deal between himself and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "We've already agreed that by the end of the year we won't be paying Israel," he said, adding that Washington would help if Israel needed it and that Israel could still buy American weapons whenever it wanted. Israel, in his words, is "number one," receives more than anyone else, and "no longer needs" the money.

The arrangement he was describing is a 10-year security assistance memorandum of understanding that began in 2019 and provides $3.8 billion a year. Barack Obama signed it, before Trump took office in 2017. It is set to run until September 2028, and Trump did not explain how it would be ended roughly two years early. Nothing in his remarks, as reported, described a formal amendment or a mechanism for doing so.

The scale of the relationship gives the statement its weight. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, Israel has received the inflation-adjusted equivalent of more than $300 billion in US economic and military support since its founding in 1948, far more than any other country. Netanyahu has himself spoken of reducing that reliance. In June he said he deeply appreciated the help from Israel's American friends but that the country needed to break free from dependency and build its own independent armaments network.

In Israel, the reaction was sharp. Gadi Eisenkot, the opposition leader who is trying to assemble a coalition to challenge Netanyahu, said in a statement on X that Israel's defense establishment had learned of a shift in the strategic relationship through the media, at the same moment as the public. That, he said, showed how dangerous Netanyahu's conduct was. "He can no longer be trusted and must be replaced," Eisenkot said.

Trump tied the decision partly to domestic politics. The midterms have been framed as a referendum on his second term and could cost the Republican Party control of Congress. Democrats such as Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan have criticized continued aid to Israel while Americans struggle with rising prices. Trump said ending the aid would counter a "bad talking point" used against Republicans, and asked why the US should "suffer the slings from lunatics like an El-Sayed" when Israel does not need the assistance.

Public opinion has moved considerably. Once a rare source of bipartisan consensus, unconditional support for Israel has become less popular, particularly since Israel's offensive in Gaza following the Hamas attack of October 2023. A Quinnipiac University poll in June found 48% of all voters and 66% of Democrats think the US is too supportive of Israel, up from 16% and 20% in 2017. A Pew Research Center poll from March last year found 53% of Americans view Israel unfavorably, up from 42% in 2022.

In the same interview, Trump confirmed that US forces struck Iran overnight. He called it a "minor" attack on an anti-aircraft facility that he said was hit as soon as it was completed. The war with Iran, which the US has fought jointly with Israel, has pushed up US gasoline prices and sharply lowered Trump's approval ratings.

Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies told Reuters the timing was "curious." He asked why Trump announced it on Election Day, and amid speculation that a major joint US-Israeli strike on Iran could be days away. What to watch next is whether the memorandum is formally changed, what Israel's defense planners do in response, and how the Iran campaign shapes the relationship as the election results come in.