Netanyahu approached Trump about a proposal; his office had no immediate comment
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the United States will stop providing Israel with $4 billion each year in aid in 2027 but will sell the country arms. Trump described Israel as the United States’ closest ally in the Middle East.
“You can consider it barter. You can consider military aid or cash,” Trump said. “Look, we give them $4 billion of things and money, and they don’t need it. And I was approached by Bibi Netanyahu, and we’ve been talking about it for a couple of years because it’s a lot of money.”
Trump made the announcement during a phone call with Fox News Channel on Election Day for the midterms. The Republican president said Netanyahu had approached him about the proposal and that they had been talking about it for a couple of years.
The United States has sent tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Israel over the last few years.
An academic study published last year showed that the United States under the administrations of President Joe Biden, a Democrat, and Trump provided at least $21.7 billion in military assistance to Israel after the start of the Gaza war in 2023. The study was published on the second anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Israel that provoked the conflict.
Another study, also published last year by the Costs of War project at Brown University’s Watson School of International and Public Affairs, said the United States had spent roughly $10 billion more on security aid and operations in the broader Middle East in the previous two years.
Both reports relied on open source material for most of their findings. The Associated Press said they offered some of the most comprehensive accountings of U.S. military aid to Israel and estimated costs of direct American military involvement in the Middle East.
Trump’s stated rationale for the proposed shift was that Israel did not need the aid and that $4 billion each year was a lot of money for the United States to spend. He also said U.S. aid to Israel had become a Democratic talking point, pointing to candidates such as Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed.
Under the arrangement Trump described, the United States would stop providing the annual aid in 2027 and sell arms to Israel. Netanyahu’s office had no immediate comment.