Key Points
- Donald Trump says he and Benjamin Netanyahu agreed months ago to end $4 billion a year in US funding to Israel by the end of 2026.
- Trump made the remarks on Fox News’ Fox & Friends on Tuesday 3 November 2026, as Americans voted in the midterm elections.
- He said Israel no longer needs the money, and that the United States would still help Israel if it needed it.
- Netanyahu’s office had no immediate comment on Trump’s remarks.
- It is not immediately clear which exact funding Trump meant; the existing US-Israel military aid memorandum provides $3.8 billion a year and runs to 2028.
US President Donald Trump has said Washington will stop providing $4 billion a year in funding to Israel after the end of this year, claiming he reached an understanding on the move with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu months ago.
Speaking in a telephone interview on Fox News’ Fox & Friends on Tuesday, Trump said the two leaders had already settled the question. He said Israel did not need the support any more, and argued that some Democrats and left-wing politicians had been using American financial support for Israel as a talking point against Republicans.
“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,” Trump said, according to Reuters.
Trump also said Netanyahu himself had raised the idea, telling the programme that the Israeli prime minister had suggested it would be appropriate for Israel not to receive aid. He did not give further detail on how the arrangement would work in practice.
There was no immediate response from Netanyahu’s office, and the announcement leaves an important question open: exactly which stream of funding is covered. A memorandum of understanding between the two countries provides $3.8 billion in annual US military aid to Israel and is approaching its expiry in 2028, with talks already under way about how American assistance should evolve after that date. Netanyahu said in a May interview that he hoped to wean Israel off US military support within a decade.
The timing adds to the significance. Trump spoke on midterm election morning, when control of Congress was at stake, and the question of US support for Israel has featured in campaign debate. Any formal change to military financing would also be expected to involve Congress, which authorises such spending.
For now, the announcement stands as a claim by the president, not a confirmed formal agreement published by either government. Readers should watch for a statement from Netanyahu’s office, clarification of which aid is included, and any response from Congress.
Reaction in Israel — and the silence that matters
Neither Netanyahu’s office nor Israel’s foreign minister immediately confirmed the claimed agreement, Al Jazeera reported, and the US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Netanyahu himself had already said publicly in October that Americans should get used to the idea that the large aid packages of the past will not continue, telling an Israeli television channel that America had changed. Critics of the announcement in Washington argued separately that ending the grant would not end the money flow if Congress pressed ahead with deeper defence-industry cooperation.
Section 219: the defence-bill angle
The House passed a provision in July, Section 219 of the fiscal 2027 National Defense Authorization Act, that would tie the US and Israeli militaries more closely together on weapons research, production and technology — including drones, missile defence, artificial intelligence and cyber security. The House-passed 2027 bill included $750 million for US-Israel initiatives, while the fiscal 2026 act authorised nearly $700 million. Trump also said the US would still sell weapons to Israel, so an end to the annual grant would not mean an end to arms sales. And because the money is appropriated by Congress, experts cited by Al Jazeera expect any phase-out to run through 2027 rather than stopping dead at the end of 2026 — a point the article’s original ‘claim, not confirmed agreement’ framing already made.
Source: Reuters, 3 November 2026, cross-checked against Al Jazeera and Haaretz reporting of the same Fox & Friends interview.
