US President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced that his administration would discontinue the $4 billion annual funding provided to Israel after the end of this year, following an agreement he said he reached with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Speaking during an interview on Fox News’ Fox and Friends, Trump argued that Israel no longer needed the financial assistance, accusing some Democratic and left-wing politicians of using Washington’s support for Israel to criticise Republicans.
“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,” Trump told Fox News’ Fox and Friends.
“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,” he said.
Netanyahu’s office had not immediately responded to Trump’s announcement.
However, it remained unclear which specific funding arrangement the US president was referring to. The existing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which provides Israel with $3.8 billion in annual American military assistance, is due to expire in 2028. Discussions have been ongoing over the future of Washington’s military support beyond that period.
“They can buy whatever they want. They can buy whatever they want. So can Europe. We make the greatest weapons in the world,” Trump added on Tuesday.
In a May interview with CBS, Netanyahu expressed his intention to gradually reduce Israel’s dependence on American military assistance within 10 years.
Similarly, in a June letter to a US congressman, the Israeli prime minister argued that the country should transition from receiving financial assistance to establishing a partnership with Washington.
He wrote that the time had come for Israel “to move from aid recipient to partner.”
Meanwhile, public support for Israel in the United States has declined since the Gaza war began in 2023, with the shift particularly pronounced among Democratic voters.
A June poll by Quinnipiac University found that 48 per cent of American voters and 66 per cent of Democrats believed the United States was providing excessive support to Israel. This represented a significant increase from 16 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively, when the question was first asked in 2017.
The decline in support has also influenced Democratic politics, with candidates critical of Israel securing primary victories and some moderate lawmakers becoming increasingly willing to question longstanding American support for the country.
Trump argued that political opponents were exploiting the financial assistance arrangement to portray his party negatively.
“The left uses the $4 billion payment that everybody knows about, well it’s no secret, as a signal of unfairness, and we can’t allow that to happen,” he said.
“We were giving them 4 billion, we are, but it gets cut off at the end of the year,” Trump added. “Why? Because they don’t need it.”
Israeli Finance Ministry Expresses Surprise
Meanwhile, Israel’s Finance Ministry reportedly expressed surprise over Trump’s announcement, indicating that it had not been informed that the US president intended to declare a suspension of the assistance.
The assessment in Israel was that Trump was referring to ending the existing Memorandum of Understanding, which governs the $3.8 billion annual American security assistance to Israel and remains valid until the end of 2028.
