Trump changes the rules with Israel: he will stop giving them $4 billion, but will sell them weapons

President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that the United States will stop providing $4 billion in annual aid to Israel in 2027 and will now sell weapons to its closest ally in the Middle East.

The president told Fox News during a phone call on Tuesday, the day of the U.S. midterm elections, that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had approached him with the idea and that they have been talking about it for a couple of years.

Trump maintains that Israel does not need the aid and that it is too much money for the United States. But he also notes that aid to Israel has become a Democratic campaign talking point for candidates like Abdul El-Sayed, a candidate for the Senate from Michigan and an outspoken critic of Israel.

“You can consider it a trade. You can consider it military aid or cash," Trump commented. "Look, we give them $4 billion in things and money, and they don't need it. And Bibi Netanyahu approached me, and we’ve been talking about it for a couple of years because it’s a lot of money.”

There was no comment from Netanyahu's office.

Tens of billions of dollars have gone to Israel

The United States has sent tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Israel over the past few years.

In 2016, President Barack Obama, a Democrat, signed an unprecedented security agreement to give the Israeli military $38 billion over 10 years, which equals $3.8 billion per year. Under the agreement, Israel's ability to spend part of the funds on Israeli military products would be phased out, and eventually, all the money would be spent on American military industries.

Netanyahu has spoken in the past about the need to stop depending on that aid and has said that those measures had to end at some point.

He told The Economist in January that he wanted to “gradually reduce” U.S. military aid over the next 10 years and that such a change “was underway.”

Trump says aid to Israel is too easy a target for critics

But the image of the aid had also become a problem, according to Trump, who pointed to El-Sayed for using it as a campaign argument.

“The left uses the $4 billion payment—which everyone knows about, it’s no secret—as a sign of injustice,” Trump declared on Tuesday on Fox. “And we can’t allow that. I don’t like it because it’s too easy. It’s almost too easy a target. And Bibi and I have been talking, and we have agreed. He was very understanding about it.”

The phase-out of direct military and economic aid to Israel has long been a subject of debate in both countries and has gained momentum in recent years.

However, there are several complicating matters, including the obligations the United States has to Israel under the Camp David peace accords with Egypt, which require the United States to support Israel and Egypt with security assistance.

Additionally, much of the assistance the United States provides to Israel comes in the form of foreign military financing, which gives Israel the money but requires it to be spent on U.S.-produced weaponry, meaning the funds are reinvested in the American economy.

Unless Israel plans to spend the same amount on purchasing American material, North American defense contractors could be affected.

There was more aid after the Gaza war began

An academic study published last year showed that the United States, under the administrations of Democratic President Joe Biden and Republican 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 October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Israel that gave way to the most recent war.

Another study, also published last year by the Costs of War project at Brown University's Watson School of International and Public Affairs, said that the United States had spent approximately $10 billion more on security assistance and operations in the broader Middle East in the previous two years.

While the reports relied on material from open sources for most of their findings, they offered some of the most comprehensive counts of U.S. military aid to its close ally Israel and estimated the costs of direct U.S. military involvement in the Middle East.