Most of Israel’s 2025 aid came through grants for U.S. military hardware
Benjamin Netanyahu had previously suggested tapering off U.S. military aid to Israel over the next decade. The Guardian said Donald Trump’s plan to end the nearly $4 billion annual payment at the end of the year would significantly accelerate that taper; Trump claimed arms sales to Israel would replace the payment.
In a phone interview with Fox News as voting began Tuesday morning, Trump said the United States would cut nearly $4 billion (£2.96 billion) in military aid because “they don’t need it.” “We were giving them $4bn … But it gets cut off at the end of the year,” he said. The Guardian described it as a surprise election-day announcement.
During the interview, Trump claimed that the abrupt ending of aid had been proposed by Netanyahu. “We give them $4bn of things and money, and they don’t need it,” he said. “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 also indicated that he had decided to end the annual payment — which he claimed would be replaced by arms sales to Israel instead — because it had become a popular criticism of U.S. foreign policy led by outspoken candidates including the Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed. “Why should we suffer the slings from lunatics like El-Sayed when they don’t need it?” Trump said. “It’s a bad talking point.”
Most of the approximately $3.8 billion Israel received in 2025 came as Foreign Military Financing grants, which allow the country to buy U.S. military hardware including F-35 fighter jets. Another $500 million was given for joint missile defence programmes.
The Guardian said Trump’s announcement appeared timed to affect the outcome of the midterm elections. The outlet said foreign policy and support for Israel had played an unusually important role in key races, including Michigan’s Senate contest, where Democrat Abdul El-Sayed was running against Republican Mike Rogers. El-Sayed would become the United States’ first Muslim senator if elected. The Guardian separately said the election-day announcement appeared targeted at voters skeptical of U.S. support for Israel and the war in Gaza.
A Quinnipiac University poll released in September showed that 48% of Americans believed the United States was too supportive of Israel. The Guardian said other recent polls showed a historic shift away from U.S. support for Israel and Netanyahu’s government. The outlet also said anger over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza had helped usher in a wave of progressive Democratic candidates, including El-Sayed.
Vice-President JD Vance had openly accused Israel of trying to sabotage U.S. negotiations with Iran. In a June interview with the New York Times, he said of Israel’s foreign policy: “You can’t just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have.”
During the Fox News interview, Trump spoke warmly about Netanyahu and boasted about his own popularity in Israel. “If people ever got tired of me in the US, I’ll move to Israel and become prime minister,” he said.