Trump Announces the End of US Military Aid for Israel

TVS News AI, editorially supervised, presents Trump Announces the End of US Military Aid for Israel.

On Tuesday morning, as voting in the US midterm elections began, Donald Trump said in a phone interview with Fox News that the US would end its military aid for Israel by the end of the year. According to his account, this was an abrupt cut: “We gave them $4 billion … But it is being cut at the end of the year.” He put the amount of support at almost $4 billion, equivalent to £2.96 billion.

Trump thus announced one of the biggest changes so far to the US channel of support for Israel. The statement did not come as an abstract foreign policy proposal, but during a phone interview in the middle of the election campaign. Trump also said the support should be replaced by arms sales to Israel.

The $4 Billion Was Not a Blank-Check Aid Budget

The $4 billion did not refer to a single aid payment, but to a package of military programs. According to information from the source, Israel received the bulk of roughly $3.8 billion in 2025 in so-called Foreign Military Financing grants. This allowed Israel to buy US military equipment, including F-35 fighter jets.

Another $500 million went toward joint missile-defense programs. The announcement therefore concerned two clearly identified areas: the financing of American military equipment and cooperation on missile protection. The report did not explain precisely how the aid would end after the year or be replaced by arms sales.

Trump claimed in the Fox interview that the termination had been proposed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “I was approached by Bibi Netanyahu, and we have been talking about it for a few years because it is a lot of money.” This account came from Trump. Independently of that, according to the report, Netanyahu had already proposed gradually winding down US military aid over the following 10 years. Trump’s announcement would bring that timetable forward considerably.

Trump Framed the Support as a Campaign Burden

Trump did not justify the cut solely through the military relationship between the US and Israel. He referred to criticism of US foreign policy that, according to his account, had been raised by prominent candidates. In the interview, he named Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Michigan.

El-Sayed is running against Republican Mike Rogers. If he wins, according to information from the source, he would become the first Muslim US senator. Trump therefore spoke explicitly about El-Sayed and the allegations he had made regarding support for Israel: “Why should we suffer under the blows of lunatics like El-Sayed when they don’t need the aid?” This was also his justification for the announced termination.

The political dimension was also visible in the polls. A survey published by Quinnipiac University in September showed that 48 percent of Americans considered the US too supportive of Israel. During the phone interview, Trump also praised Benjamin Netanyahu warmly. Beyond their later talks with Israel, he said, in essence, that he would move to Israel and become prime minister if Americans eventually stopped liking him.

Vance Had Already Questioned Israel’s Foreign Policy in June

Trump was not the only one to make support for Israel an election issue. Vice President JD Vance said in an interview with the New York Times in June that not every individual national security problem could be solved by “killing.” He was explicitly referring to Israel’s foreign policy.

The announcement fit into a broader shift in the US debate. According to the report, the war in Gaza and the humanitarian situation had produced a wave of progressive Democratic candidates. In key races, including the Senate election in Michigan, US policy toward Israel was unusually important. Trump therefore placed the end of military aid in the election campaign: almost $4 billion per year, a date at the end of the year and an announcement on Election Day.

More for you: More on Election Day and Trump’s statement from The Guardian · Analysis of the political shift