Trump Says Military Aid to Israel Ends This Year: What We Know and What We Don’t

On Election Day, the president said America will stop sending military aid to Israel by the end of the year. Four billion dollars a year, gone. Here is what he said, and what he did not.

In a phone interview on Fox and Friends, President Trump said he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a deal months ago to stop the payments. He said Israel has become a very successful country and does not need the money, and that Israel can still buy American weapons.

He also said the idea came from Netanyahu. Netanyahu has talked about weaning Israel off American aid over time. We report what was said; the Israeli prime minister’s office declined to comment. That is how we cover it here, sourced and plain. Now, the facts on the ground.

Here is the current deal. A memorandum signed in twenty sixteen gives Israel three point eight billion dollars a year, mostly to buy American equipment, and it runs through twenty twenty-eight. Trump gave no details on which aid would end, or how.

The politics are plain too. Trump tied the announcement to the Michigan Senate race and criticized Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, saying Republicans should not suffer the slings over aid Israel does not need. In Israel, opposition figures said the military learned of this through the media, and one called it a severe blow to security.

So here is where it stands. A president says a four-billion-dollar program ends in two months. No terms, no timeline, no comment from Israel’s government. Watch for those details, and for any word from Congress. That is the story so far.