The American president announced on Tuesday the end of an annual $3.8 billion assistance dedicated to Israel’s security, stating he reached this agreement with Benjamin Netanyahu. The announcement comes on the very day of the US midterm elections.
This is a major break in the relationship between Washington and Tel Aviv that Donald Trump announced on Tuesday, November 3, 2026. During a telephone interview on Fox News, the American president declared he had agreed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the annual security aid to Israel, set at $3.8 billion. This decision will take effect at the end of 2026.
« We give Israel $4 billion a year, and we reached an agreement months ago that we would stop, » Trump stated, specifying that Netanyahu was « in agreement » with this direction. The president justified his decision by Israel’s economic prosperity: « Israel is a very prosperous country. They don’t need it, » before tempering by adding that the United States would remain ready to intervene « if they need it. »
This aid was established in 2019 as part of an agreement signed in 2016 by Barack Obama, Trump’s Democratic predecessor, for a duration of ten years. It mainly financed arms purchases by the Hebrew state. Netanyahu himself had expressed, as early as May, his desire to reduce this financial support to « zero, » declaring on CBS his intention to end Israel’s dependence on the American ally.
The announcement comes amid a noticeable deterioration of Israel’s image in the United States, following the bombings on Gaza and the war in Iran. This rejection affects both the Democratic electorate and certain segments of the American far right. The Israeli opposition quickly reacted: Gadi Eisenkot, leader of the camp opposing Netanyahu, considered that this decision revealed a dangerous management of diplomatic affairs. « The fact that the Israeli defense apparatus learns about this change in our strategic relations through the media, at the same time as the Israeli public, shows how dangerous Benjamin Netanyahu’s conduct is. He can no longer be trusted and must be replaced, » he wrote on X.
In the United States, the announcement also sparked criticism within the Republican camp itself. Former MAGA-affiliated elected official Marjorie Taylor Greene interpreted this gesture as an admission of electoral weakness: « Donald Trump makes this statement because he knows Republicans are going to be slaughtered today at the polls, » she said, considering that the president had betrayed his promise to put « America first » by favoring Israel. This reading is shared by several observers, who see in this last-minute move a maneuver without real effect on the day’s vote.
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