President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the United States will end its annual military aid to Israel by December, following an agreement with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In a phone interview with Fox News, Trump said the two had reached the agreement several months ago and that Israel no longer needs the funding because of its economic and military strength.
The aid amounts to $4 billion a year. Trump said the United States would stop directly funding Israel at the end of 2026, but emphasized that the decision would not end military cooperation between the countries. He said Washington would help Israel if needed and described the two nations as close allies.
The move would bring forward the end of a bilateral assistance arrangement that was set to continue through 2028. The memorandum of understanding, negotiated during Barack Obama’s administration, established a 10-year aid framework. Israel has used a substantial share of the funding to purchase weapons and defense equipment from U.S. companies.
Netanyahu has previously called for a gradual reduction in Israel’s reliance on American military assistance. In a May interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes, he said he wanted to reduce the aid to zero over the next decade, describing the goal as a shift from financial assistance toward a strategic partnership. During discussions in Washington in July, he also proposed a gradual transition that would preserve cooperation in areas including missile defense, weapons development and intelligence sharing.
Sources: Observador.