Trump Says U.S. Will Stop Paying Israel About $4 Billion a Year After 2026

Featured photo: The White House (file photo). Photo: Cezary Piwowarczyk, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

President Donald Trump said Tuesday, Nov. 3, that the United States will stop paying Israel about $4 billion a year after the end of 2026, saying he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to the change months ago, Reuters reported via Internazionale. Trump made the remarks in a Fox & Friends interview as Americans voted in the midterm elections. Reuters said it could not immediately determine which funding he meant, and Netanyahu’s office had no immediate comment.

What Trump said

Trump said Israel no longer needs the money and that Washington would still help Israel if it asked, Reuters reported. He said Netanyahu raised the idea of ending the aid, and that Israel can still buy U.S. weapons, Fox News reported. He described the aid as military hardware, cash or “barter.”

Trump also tied the issue to the campaign. He said some Democrats and left-wing politicians use U.S. aid to Israel as a talking point against Republicans, and he criticized Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, according to Fox News and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

What is unclear

The current memorandum of understanding between the two countries provides $3.8 billion a year in U.S. military aid and runs through 2028, and talks were reportedly underway on what comes after it, Reuters reported. Trump’s $4 billion figure does not match that amount, and it is unclear how easily the White House could stop the funding this year, JTA reported. Aid under the agreement is funded through annual appropriations passed by Congress. No White House or State Department clarification had been published at our deadline, and the State Department did not immediately respond to Al Jazeera.

Netanyahu’s earlier statements

Netanyahu has said he wants Israel to rely less on U.S. military aid. In January he said he wanted to reduce it gradually to zero, JTA reported. In May he told CBS he hoped to wean Israel off U.S. military support within a decade, and in a June letter to a U.S. congressman he wrote that Israel should move from aid recipient to partner, Reuters reported. The timing and terms of any change have not been detailed, Fox News reported.

Reaction

Yair Golan, chairman of Israel’s opposition Democrats party, criticized Netanyahu, saying an end to U.S. aid would seriously damage Israel’s security as it replenishes weapons stockpiles and rebuilds air defenses, JTA reported. In the U.S., former Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Trump critic, wrote on X that the announcement would not change the midterm results, Al Jazeera reported.

Aid to Israel has become a campaign issue in both parties. In July, the House rejected, 314-104, an amendment by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) to cut off aid to Israel, with nearly half of Democrats supporting it, Al Jazeera reported. In April, dozens of senators, nearly all Democrats, backed a failed effort to block certain weapons sales to Israel, JTA reported. A June Quinnipiac poll found 48% of voters and 66% of Democrats said the U.S. is too supportive of Israel, up from 16% and 20% in 2017, according to Reuters.

Why it matters

The announcement comes as the Iran war, which the United States and Israel launched on Feb. 28, sits in a fragile pause while Qatar relays proposals between Washington and Tehran. Our Iran war tracker follows the conflict’s costs and casualties, and today’s Middle East War Update covers the latest U.S. strike near the Strait of Hormuz.

The remarks came on Election Day, with control of Congress, which writes foreign aid budgets, on the ballot. For more, see why today’s elections matter, Trump’s closing midterm message, and live calls on our 2026 election results tracker.

Sources

• Reuters via Internazionale: Trump says US will stop paying Israel after year-end (Reuters original)
• Fox News: Trump says Israel will stop receiving $4B in US aid by year’s end
• Jewish Telegraphic Agency: Trump says US aid to Israel will stop at the end of the year
• Al Jazeera: Trump says US will stop giving Israel aid after year-end