Trump says US will end military aid to Israel by end of year

Donald Trump has said the United States will end its military aid to Israel at the end of this year, a surprise election day announcement that cuts nearly $4bn in annual support and appeared aimed at voters sceptical of US backing for Israel and the war in Gaza.

In a phone interview with Fox News as voting began on Tuesday morning, the US president said the aid would end because Israel did not need it. "We were giving them $4bn … But it gets cut off at the end of the year," he said, the Guardian reported. He claimed the money would be replaced by arms sales instead.

Trump said the decision was proposed by Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he called "Bibi", adding that the two had "been talking about it for a couple of years". Netanyahu had previously suggested tapering the aid off over a decade; Trump's timeline is far faster. Israeli officials appeared to be caught off guard, and opposition figures said the episode showed the damage Netanyahu had done to the relationship. Gadi Eisenkot, a centre-right rival seeking to replace him, said learning of a strategic shift through the media showed Netanyahu's conduct posed "a genuine danger". Yair Golan, head of the Democrats party, wrote that a responsible prime minister would have fought to increase aid, "not dismantle it".

The announcement lands at a fragile moment in Israeli politics, a week after Netanyahu's party lost its Knesset majority and the opposition began trying to assemble a coalition. Israel received most of the approximately $3.8bn in 2025 as foreign military financing for US hardware including F-35 jets, with another $500m for joint missile defence programmes.

The timing also fits the midterm campaign. Trump framed the cut as an answer to critics such as Abdul El-Sayed, the Michigan Democrat who would be the country's first Muslim senator. "Why should we suffer the slings from lunatics like El-Sayed when they don't need it?" he said. A Quinnipiac University poll in September found 48% of Americans believed the US was too supportive of Israel.

What comes next is unclear on both sides. Israeli officials have yet to set out publicly how the cut will be implemented, and Israel's security establishment is waiting to learn whether arms sales will truly replace the grants — and who will be running the government in Jerusalem when they stop.