WASHINGTON, Nov 3, 2026 (Net) – US President Donald Trump said Tuesday
that Washington is ending a 10-year security assistance deal with Israel that
allowed $3.8 billion in annual assistance to its ally until 2028.
Trump said Israel was “fine” with him ending the assistance, which began in
2019 and was signed under his predecessor, Barack Obama, three years earlier.
“We’ll help Israel if they need it,” he added in an interview on US current
affairs show Fox and Friends, saying that he had agreed with Israel’s Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cut the assistance.
“Israel’s our number one; we give them more than anybody else, and they no
longer need it … If they did need it, I would say keep it going,” Trump
added.
Under the deal, Israel receives financial assistance for the purchase of
around $3.8 billion of weapons a year.
Since its founding in 1948, Israel has received more than $300 billion,
adjusted for inflation, in US economic and military assistance, according to
figures from the Council on Foreign Relations, far more than any other
country has received since 1946.
The Israeli premier has previously said he wanted to end Israel’s reliance on
US support.
In June, Netanyahu called for his country to increase its military autonomy
and reduce its reliance on Washington.
In January he told The Economist that he hoped to do so within a decade,
while in May he told US broadcaster CBS that he wanted support to reach
“zero”.
On Tuesday, Trump cited attacks by leftist Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, who is
running for the US Senate in Tuesday’s midterm elections after harnessing
popular discontent and anti-Israel sentiment, as part of the reasoning behind
the decision.
“Why should we suffer the slings from lunatics like an El-Sayed when they
don’t need it?” he said on Fox, referring to Israel and the aid.
