Trump To Cut Off $4B Annual Israel Aid By Year-End, Jokes He’d Move There To Become PM ‘If People Got Tired Of Me’

President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that the United States will end its nearly $4 billion in annual military aid to Israel by the end of the year, saying he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to the cutoff months ago. Trump argued Israel no longer needs the assistance and that the annual payment had become an easy political target for critics on the left.

“Bibi Netanyahu and I have made a deal,” Trump said. “We give Israel $4 billion a year, and we made a deal months ago that we’re stopping – and they’re fine with it.“

Arguing that the longtime U.S. ally has outgrown the need for direct taxpayer subsidies, Trump added: “They’ve become a very successful country. They don’t need it. And we won’t be paying anymore.”

Trump even joked about a backup political career in Jerusalem if American voters ever grew tired of him:

From Aid to Cash-Only Weapons Sales

While the proposed cutoff would halt direct financial grants, it would not restrict Israel’s access to the American defense industry. “They can buy whatever they want,” Trump said, while noting that Washington would still step in with emergency aid if Israel genuinely needed it.

Under a 10-year memorandum of understanding negotiated by the Obama administration and appropriated annually by Congress, the U.S. currently provides Israel with $3.8 billion a year in military assistance through 2028.

However, Trump’s abrupt year-end deadline accelerates the timetable far beyond what Israeli leadership previously envisioned. In May, Netanyahu told CBS that he wanted to phase out U.S. financial support gradually over the next decade:

“It’s time that we weaned ourselves from the remaining military support, and go from aid to partnership.”

Of note, in May Netanyahu floated the idea of weaning Israel off US military support ‘within a decade,’ telling 60 Minutes “I want to draw down to zero the American financial support, the financial component of the military cooperation that we have.”

In July, the GOP-led House defeated a Democrat bid to end Israel aid. 

Defusing an Election-Day Target

According to Trump, it was Netanyahu himself who suggested the shift – a move Trump explicitly framed as a way to neutralize domestic criticism of U.S. foreign aid as voters head to the polls for the midterms.

“The left uses the $4 billion payment – that everybody knows about, it’s no secret – as a signal of unfairness, and we can’t allow that to happen,” Trump said. “I don’t like that, because, you know, it’s too easy. It’s almost too easy a target.”

Polling throughout the year shows measurable erosion in support for Israel among conservatives, particularly younger ones, even as the core MAGA base remains relatively firm. A May 2026 Pew Research analysis found that only 43 percent of Republicans aged 18–34 view the Israeli people favorably, compared with 79 percent of those 50 and older; a majority of Republicans under 50 now hold unfavorable views of Israel overall. Chicago Council on Global Affairs data from 2026 recorded a drop in Republican thermometer ratings of Israel (from 69 in 2022 to 62), with MAGA Republicans still more positive (67) than non-MAGA Republicans (55), and younger Republicans rating the country substantially lower than older cohorts. 

On aid, an Economist/YouGov poll showed 69 percent of MAGA supporters still favor maintaining or increasing U.S. military assistance to Israel (with only 8 percent wanting it stopped entirely), while other surveys have found majorities of younger Republicans open to reducing or ending weapons transfers. Support for the Iran war is more resilient within the Republican coalition: a July 2026 Chicago Council survey found 63 percent of Republicans (and 77 percent of MAGA Republicans) saying the war has been worth the costs, in contrast to large majorities of Democrats and independents who say it has not. These figures indicate a clear generational and intra-party softening on Israel itself, with more limited but real divisions on the broader Iran conflict.

Of note, scrutiny over Washington’s blank-check support has intensified across the political spectrum since Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks. In battleground Michigan, Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed has campaigned heavily on redirecting that money to domestic priorities. Skepticism has also gained traction among populist Republicans, though the House rejected a largely symbolic measure in July that would have blocked all military aid to Israel.

The announcement arrives at a volatile moment in the region. The war against Iran – launched jointly by the U.S. and Israel in late February (technically the US did it at Israel’s request) – is now entering its ninth month, driving up global energy prices and compounding the cost-of-living pressures dominating the midterm elections.

While Washington and Tehran have stepped up backchannel diplomacy in recent days to avert another round of all-out war, friction remains behind the scenes: Bloomberg, citing reporting from Axios, noted that Netanyahu has been pressuring Trump to resume strikes on Iran as soon as the elections are over.