Trump Says U.S. Plans to Cut Off Military Aid to Israel by End of Year
U.S. and Israel have discussed phasing out grants, but president’s comments suggest it could occur much faster than expected
- President Trump said the U.S. would cut off military aid to Israel by the end of the year.
- Israeli officials were surprised by Trump’s comments, according to a person familiar with the matter.
- Any move to eliminate U.S. grant funding to Israel would require cooperation from Congress.
WASHINGTON—President Trump said Tuesday that the U.S. would cut off military aid to Israel by the end of the year, suggesting the phaseout of grants to the U.S. ally could occur much faster than expected.
“We won’t be paying anymore to Israel,” Trump said during an interview with Fox News. “We’ve already agreed that by the end of this year, we won’t be paying Israel.”
Israeli officials, including from the security establishment, were surprised by Trump’s comments, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The phasing out of direct U.S. military aid to Israel has been under discussion for months, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly saying the country should eventually wean itself off U.S. assistance. Netanyahu had previously proposed eliminating direct military aid over the next decade.
The White House and an Israeli government spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment.
“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. “They’ve become a very successful country. They don’t need it.”
According to the Congressional Research Service, the U.S. has provided Israel with about $174 billion in military assistance and funding through May 2025.
Trump cast the decision as a political calculation, arguing that ending the aid would deprive Democrats and other critics of Israel of a political talking point.
“Why should we suffer the slings from lunatics like El-Sayed when they don’t need it? It’s a bad talking point,” he said, referring to Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan’s Democratic Senate nominee. “The left uses the $4 billion payment…as a signal of unfairness. It’s almost too easy a target.”
El-Sayed has campaigned on ending unconditional grant payments to Israel. “Even a broken clock can be right twice a day,” he said of the Trump announcement.
Any move to eliminate U.S. grant funding to Israel would require cooperation from Congress, which has authorized and appropriated billions in annual assistance through 2028. Lawmakers have drafted legislation that would shift funding from foreign financing to defense investments and co-production on military technologies between the U.S. and Israel, including on missile defense and counterdrone technology.
Advocates of this legislation said it would make it easier for the Pentagon to cooperate with Israel on procuring cutting-edge military technologies. Critics say it would embed Israel deeper into Pentagon supply chains and programs in a way that makes it difficult to uproot should lawmakers reassess U.S.-Israeli defense cooperation in the future. That proposal could be a part of the new annual U.S. defense policy package, called the National Defense Authorization Act, expected to be completed by the end of the year.
Netanyahu this year said publicly that he wanted to completely phase out U.S. military aid to Israel within 10 years, while maintaining close defense cooperation. His proposal reflects growing concern in Israel about waning political support in Washington and the risks of relying too heavily on a supply of American weapons. He has also argued that the country’s growing economy and defense industry allow it to be more self-sufficient.
There is growing understanding inside Israel that it can no longer rely on U.S. military aid in the future, but Israel’s powerful security establishment still sees the assistance as critical. Opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot, who is trying to form a government that kicks Netanyahu out of power, told Time magazine there should be a gradual phaseout of U.S. assistance over five to 10 years.
On Tuesday, Eisenkot criticized Netanyahu for allowing such a significant change in the country’s security policy to be announced abruptly through the media and called on the prime minister to immediately provide explanations about the move.
“The special relationship with the U.S. is a central component of Israel’s national security,” Eisenkot said.
Chuck Freilich, a former Israeli deputy national-security adviser and a fellow at the U.S.-based Middle East Institute, said ending assistance immediately would mean walking back multiyear contracts with the American defense industry, which would trickle down to the U.S. economy.
Beyond that, Israel couldn’t afford an abrupt halt because it has a rising wartime defense budget with no clear way to plug a huge budget, Freilich said. He said most of the aid goes to the country’s strategically important air force, which relies on U.S.-developed F-35s and F-16s.
“There’s no way that Israel can allow those contracts not to continue,” he said. “You could argue, at least for the next few years, that Israel needs even more American aid than in the past.”
Trump said the U.S. would help Israel if the country needed assistance. When asked to clarify whether the U.S. was no longer giving Israel $4 billion to purchase U.S. weapons, Trump replied: “We have total control of the Hormuz Strait.”