Trump says he is ending $4bn in Israel aid, but the deal runs to 2028

President Donald Trump said on November 3 that he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed months ago to stop $4 billion in annual funding to Israel after this year. In a Fox News phone interview, Trump said the aid "will be interrupted at the end of the year" and that the US "won't be paying any more," while continuing to sell weapons to Israel. He described the $4 billion as "military aid or cash."

Trump offered no mechanism for ending the funding. The Memorandum of Understanding that provides $3.8 billion in annual US military aid to Israel does not expire until September 2028. It is not clear which funding stream Trump meant, and the $4 billion figure he cited does not match the $3.8 billion the memorandum provides. Netanyahu's office declined to comment.

Trump said the idea was Netanyahu's, and that Israel "does not need it." Netanyahu has previously floated tapering American aid over the next decade. Trump also framed the move as removing a "bad talking point" he said left-wing Democrats used against Republicans over military assistance to Israel.

The announcement came as voters headed to the polls for the midterm elections, where US military aid to Israel and its use of American weapons in Gaza and the West Bank had become one of the campaign's most contentious issues.

If carried out, halting $4 billion in annual aid would mark a shift in decades of US-Israel policy. But the unexpired memorandum, the absence of any stated legal or administrative route to end the funding, and Netanyahu's silence leave the practical effect unclear.