Trump Tells Fox News He and Netanyahu Agreed to End $4 Billion Annual Aid After 2026

Donald Trump said Tuesday that he has already struck a deal with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop the roughly $4 billion in annual U.S. military aid to Israel, with the cutoff taking effect by the end of this year.

Speaking on Fox News' Fox and Friends, Trump framed the decision as settled policy rather than a proposal.

"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. 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."

No Israeli government statement, memorandum, or congressional document has surfaced to confirm the arrangement Trump described. The claim rests entirely on his remarks to Fox News. The figure he cited, $4 billion, is well below the roughly $3.8 billion base annual allocation set under the 2016 U.S.-Israel memorandum of understanding, before accounting for the tens of billions in supplemental wartime funding Congress has approved since October 2023. What exactly would end, over what timeline, and under what conditions Washington would still "help Israel if they need it," remains unspecified.

Trump also said Democrats and "left-wing politicians" have used U.S. funding to Israel as a talking point against Republicans, a characterization offered without further detail in the Fox interview.

The remarks landed as Israel's wartime conduct in Gaza has become a live issue in the U.S. midterm elections. The New Arab reports that Senate candidates Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan and Troy Jackson in Maine, both of whom have accused Israel of genocide in Gaza, are in competitive races, and that progressive Democrats critical of Israel are positioned to win House primaries against pro-Israel incumbents.

Abdelhalim Abdelrahman, communications director for American Muslims for Palestine, told the outlet that voters are increasingly linking foreign policy toward Israel to domestic economic grievances, saying progressive candidates have "done an excellent job exploring the intersection between the genocide in Gaza and Israel's broader destabilising conduct in the Middle East with the affordability crisis in America."

Occupation Watch has found no independent corroboration of the aid cutoff Trump described. The claim is attributed to Trump alone and remains unconfirmed by Israeli officials, the State Department, or congressional appropriators.