Trump says US will end Israel aid in 2026

Key Takeaways

The cutoff	President Donald Trump told Fox & Friends on Tuesday, Nov. 3, that U.S. aid to Israel gets cut off at the end of the year. He said Israel can still buy American weapons.
The sum	Trump called the package $4 billion in things and money. A 2016 memorandum pledges $3.8 billion a year through fiscal year 2028.
The May interview	Trump said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised the idea. On Sunday, May 10, 2026, Netanyahu told CBS he wanted that support drawn down to zero over ten years.
What is open	The Associated Press wrote that the yearly aid stops in 2027. Netanyahu's office had not commented, and no written plan says which accounts end.

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday, Nov. 3, that the United States will end Israel aid at the close of 2026. He told Fox & Friends a package he put at $4 billion a year "gets cut off at the end of the year," while Israel can still buy American weapons. The Associated Press described that stop as 2027.

Trump says he will end Israel aid

President Donald Trump made the announcement by phone on Fox & Friends on Tuesday, Nov. 3, midterm Election Day. Fox News' account of the call quotes him saying, "We were giving them $4 billion – we are – but it gets cut off at the end of the year."

He pointed the decision at a Senate race. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee in Michigan, is running against Republican Mike Rogers. "Why should we suffer the slings from lunatics like an El-Sayed when they don't need it?" Trump said. "It's a bad talking point."

He would not divide the sum into cash or weapons. "You can consider it barter. You can consider military aid or cash," he said in that Fox News account. "It's what we give them — $4 billion of things and money, and they don't need it." He added, "They can buy whatever they want."

Trump said Netanyahu raised the idea and that they had talked "for a couple of years because it's a lot of money." He said the prime minister told him, "I think it would be appropriate if we do not receive aid." The BBC's report quotes two further lines from the same call: "We've already agreed that by the end of this year we won't be paying Israel," and "we made a deal months ago that we're stopping." Trump also said, "Now we'll help Israel if they need it."

The AP story PBS News published the same day does not use those "end of this year" lines. It says the United States will stop providing $4 billion a year in 2027 and will still sell arms.

A $3.8 billion pledge, not $4 billion

The White House fact sheet of Sept. 14, 2016, puts the standing pledge at $3.8 billion a year, not the $4 billion Trump used on Tuesday, Nov. 3. The memorandum of understanding is worth $38 billion over fiscal years 2019 through 2028. It sets $3.3 billion a year in Foreign Military Financing, grants that pay for U.S. military equipment, and $500 million a year for missile defense.

Fox News, the BBC, and CNN each describe that arrangement as running through 2028. The Jerusalem Post wrote that Trump had rounded $3.8 billion to $4 billion. It also wrote that the memorandum is not a treaty, that Congress still appropriates the money each year, and that an understanding between the two leaders would not by itself cancel funds already authorized and appropriated.

Trump did not say which accounts would stop, or whether joint missile defense was included. The Jerusalem Post said the interview offered no implementation plan.

Netanyahu's ten-year timetable

Netanyahu has argued for ending the payments on a slower schedule. On Sunday, May 10, 2026, he told Major Garrett of CBS, on 60 Minutes, "I want to draw down to zero the American financial support, the financial component of the military cooperation that we have." He said Israel receives $3.8 billion a year. The CBS transcript gives his timetable: "let's start now and do it over the next decade, over the next ten years, but I want to start now. I don't want to wait for the next Congress."

That schedule is about ten years. Trump's date is the end of 2026. The Jerusalem Post said the Israeli government had not confirmed the faster cutoff.

Fox News also reported an October 2026 interview with an Israeli television channel. Netanyahu said, "If you think we're going to continue receiving what I secured twice, and that's tens of billions of dollars in American aid for the defense budget, prepare yourselves and get used to the fact that it won't happen because America has changed." CNN reported a shorter version of that remark.

Jerusalem has not confirmed it

Netanyahu's office had not commented in the AP, BBC, or CNN accounts. The BBC said it had asked the White House for clarification. CNN's story says the network asked Netanyahu's office and the White House for more detail.

The Jerusalem Post reported that one Israel Defense Forces source declined to answer and another was surprised. Several Defense Ministry sources had not responded, the paper said, and the Foreign Ministry sent questions to the Prime Minister's Office.

Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East negotiator, told CNN he doubted the United States would "turn off the spigot now" with the threat of renewed war with Iran. The Pentagon's figures for that war are in Gnosis News' Oct. 29 report.

None of those accounts describes a public order. None names an appropriations account, a date on the spending calendar, or a formal change to the memorandum that runs through fiscal year 2028.