Trump says US will stop $4 billion a year in aid to Israel after 2026

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the United States will stop giving Israel about $4 billion a year in aid after the end of 2026, saying Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had proposed the change and that Israel "doesn't need it" any more.

Speaking by phone to Fox News's "Fox & Friends" as Americans voted in the midterm elections, Trump said: "We've already agreed that by the end of this year we won't be paying Israel," France 24 reported. Israel would instead buy American weapons, he said, and the US would still "help Israel if they need it". Netanyahu's office declined to comment, NBC News reported.

What Trump said

Trump said the idea came from Netanyahu. "He brought it up. He brought it up," he said, according to The Jerusalem Post, adding that the two had discussed it "for a couple of years because it's a lot of money", according to the Associated Press. "Look, we give them $4 billion of things and money, and they don't need it," he said, describing Israel as "a very successful country".

He also tied the decision to US domestic politics, saying "the left" was using the payments as a signal of unfairness and that "we can't allow that to happen", NBC News reported. He singled out Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan, who has criticised US military aid to Israel.

When pressed on whether he meant military aid or cash, Trump did not separate the two, The Jerusalem Post reported. He gave no details of how the change would be carried out.

What the aid is

Most US aid to Israel flows under a 10-year memorandum of understanding signed in 2016 under President Barack Obama. It covers fiscal years 2019 to 2028 and promises $38 billion over the decade: $3.3 billion a year in Foreign Military Financing grants and $500 million a year for joint missile-defence programmes, a total of $3.8 billion a year, which Trump rounded to $4 billion. Almost all of the money must be spent on US-made equipment, NBC News noted.

The memorandum is not a binding treaty, and the money has to be appropriated by Congress each year. Reporters noted that it was not clear how an understanding between the two leaders would cancel funds Congress has already approved, or whether the missile-defence programmes would continue. A Brown University Costs of War study cited by NBC News estimated that the US spent at least $21.7 billion on military aid to Israel in the two years after the Hamas-led attack of 7 October 2023.

Netanyahu has spoken of ending the aid, but over a longer period. He told The Economist in January that he wanted to "taper off" US military aid over the next 10 years, and in a May interview with CBS he spoke of reducing it "to zero".

Reactions in Israel

Israel's defence, diplomatic and finance officials appeared to have been caught off guard and were waiting for Netanyahu to clarify, The Jerusalem Post reported; the foreign ministry referred questions to the prime minister's office.

Opposition leaders attacked the prime minister. Yair Golan, who heads the left-wing Democrats party, said ending the aid "deals a severe blow to Israel's security", NBC News reported. Gadi Eisenkot, a former army chief who leads the Yashar party, said Netanyahu "can no longer be trusted, and he must be replaced".

Oil prices briefly reacted: Brent crude fell about 3% to $101 a barrel before recovering to about $103, according to NBC News.

Why it matters

The aid has underpinned Israel's military planning for decades, and it comes as Israel is a party, with the US, to the war with Iran that began in late February and that has disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. For India, which imports much of its oil and gas through the Gulf and has close defence ties with Israel, any change in the US-Israel relationship bears on the stability of a region where millions of Indians live and work.

What happens next

Congress, not the president alone, controls appropriations, so any change would show up in the spending bills for the next fiscal year. Talks on a new memorandum to replace the one expiring in 2028 were already under way before Trump spoke. Israel's government has not confirmed the timeline he set out.