Trump says US will end $4bn military aid to Israel this year

The latest:

The United States will stop paying $4 billion a year in military aid to Israel by the end of 2026, President Donald Trump said in a Fox News interview on Election Day, describing it as an agreement reached with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu months ago. He said Israel had become a very successful country that no longer needs the money, and that Washington would still help if Israel required assistance.

Details:

• The figure: Trump put the annual grant at $4 billion and said the two leaders agreed to end it. According to the Congressional Research Service, the US has provided Israel with roughly $174 billion in military assistance and funding through May 2025, the largest cumulative total for any recipient of American security aid.
• Trump’s framing: He cast the cutoff partly as a political calculation, arguing the payment hands Democrats and other critics an easy target. He named Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan’s Democratic Senate nominee, who has campaigned on ending unconditional grant payments to Israel.
• No confirmation yet: The White House and an Israeli government spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment, according to The Wall Street Journal, which reported the phaseout had been under discussion for months but that Trump’s timeline is far faster than officials had expected.
• Netanyahu’s position: The Israeli prime minister has said publicly this year he wants to phase out US military aid completely within a decade while keeping close defence cooperation, citing Israel’s growing economy and defence industry and concern over reliance on American weapons supplies.
• Israeli pushback: Israel’s security establishment still treats the assistance as critical, and few officials have called for an immediate halt, which would open a hole in the military budget as Israel confronts Iran and its allies in Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank. Opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot told Time he favours a five-to-10-year phaseout.
• Congress decides: Eliminating grant funding requires cooperation from Congress, which has authorised and appropriated billions in annual assistance through 2028. Lawmakers have drafted legislation shifting money from foreign financing toward joint defence investment and co-production, including missile defence and counterdrone technology.
• The legislative fight: Backers say the bill would ease Pentagon cooperation with Israel on advanced military technology. Critics warn it would embed Israel deeper into Pentagon supply chains, making the relationship harder to unwind later. The measure could ride on the National Defense Authorization Act, expected by year’s end.
• Election Day backdrop: Americans are voting for all 435 House seats and 35 Senate seats, with Republicans defending narrow majorities. Democrats need a net gain of three seats to take the House and four for the Senate, and entered the day with a 9-point lead in CNN’s Poll of Polls generic ballot.
• The polling picture: A New York Times-Siena poll published Sunday showed Democrats leading in nearly all toss-up Senate races. Recent surveys put Trump’s national approval in the low 30s, and the Financial Times reported average petrol prices set a record for a US presidential administration after the Iran war drove up fuel costs.
• Voting problems: Some machines in the swing district covering Westchester County, New York, could not scan ballots, and flooding in Florida forced 23 polling locations to relocate. Alaska’s ranked-choice Senate race drew attention over a reported scheme involving a candidate with nearly the same name as the Republican incumbent.

Background:

US military aid to Israel runs through multi-year memorandums of understanding funded by annual congressional appropriations. Netanyahu had previously proposed eliminating direct military aid gradually over the next decade rather than at once.

Between the lines:

Trump’s own explanation ties the cutoff to domestic politics rather than Israeli readiness: he framed the $4 billion as a liability Democrats exploit, and delivered it on the day voters render a verdict on his term. The gap between his year-end timeline and Netanyahu’s ten-year plan, and the fact that Congress has appropriated assistance through 2028, suggests the announcement runs ahead of the mechanism needed to execute it.

What’s next

First polls close at 6 p.m. ET, with early results expected soon after. Watch the National Defense Authorization Act, due by year’s end, for whether aid is converted into co-production, and for any Israeli or White House response.