Photo: The White House, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain). Official portrait.
President Donald Trump has said the United States will stop providing about $4 billion in annual aid to Israel by the end of 2026, claiming he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed months ago to end the payments. Trump made the announcement on Tuesday morning, as voting began in the US midterm elections, in an interview with Fox News' "Fox & Friends."
"Now, as far as paying Israel, Bibi Netanyahu and I have made a deal that we give Israel $4 billion a year, and we made a deal months ago that we're stopping, and they're fine with it," Trump said, according to Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. "We've already agreed that by the end of this year we won't be paying Israel. Now we'll help Israel if they need it."
The pact that runs to 2028
The announcement, if carried out on Trump's timeline, would cut short an existing agreement that runs for two more years. Under a 10-year memorandum of understanding signed in 2016, the United States provides $3.8 billion a year in military assistance to Israel — $3.3 billion in Foreign Military Financing and $500 million for cooperative missile-defence programmes — totalling $38 billion between fiscal years 2019 and 2028, The Jerusalem Post reported. Trump's $4 billion figure is a rounded version of that $3.8 billion annual total.
Netanyahu has previously spoken of ending Israel's dependence on US military aid, but on a far slower timetable. In January he told The Economist he wanted to phase out the assistance over a decade, and the two governments began formal talks in May on a new security framework to replace the current agreement when it expires in 2028. Trump's version — an end within weeks — is a sharp acceleration of that plan, Haaretz noted.
What is not confirmed
Important parts of Trump's account remain unconfirmed. Al Jazeera reported that there was no confirmation of the move from Netanyahu's office or Israel's foreign minister, and that the US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Because the money is appropriated by Congress each year, Trump cannot end the aid unilaterally: Congress would have to stop appropriating it, and existing programmes — including missile-defence and counter-drone work — cannot easily be switched to straight weapons purchases, analysts told Al Jazeera.
One analyst told Al Jazeera he expected military assistance to be phased out during 2027 rather than cut off by the end of 2026. Trump himself left room for exceptions, saying the United States would still help Israel if it needed it, and The Jerusalem Post noted that Israel would remain free to purchase American weapons.
Why the timing matters
The announcement came on the morning of an election in which foreign policy — above all the war with Iran — weighed heavily on voters. Exit polling reported on Wednesday showed about six in 10 voters believed the decision to use military force against Iran was wrong. Whether the aid announcement was a signal of a broader shift in US Middle East policy, or a campaign-morning remark that Congress and Jerusalem will slow down, will become clear in the weeks ahead — starting with whether Netanyahu's office confirms a deal, and whether Congress moves to change the appropriations.
Sources: Haaretz, November 3, 2026; The Jerusalem Post, November 3, 2026; Al Jazeera, November 3, 2026; Financial Express (Reuters), November 3, 2026. Trump's account of an agreement with Netanyahu is his claim; it has not been confirmed by Israel.