President Donald Trump said Tuesday that U.S. aid to Israel would be cut off at the end of this year, an offhand remark that caught Israeli officials off guard and drew immediate attention across the region. Speaking on Fox News, Trump said the United States had been giving Israel about $4 billion a year, but that the funding "gets cut off at the end of the year."
Asked by Fox host Brian Kilmeade why the decision had been made, Trump said it was because Israel "doesn't need it." Fox News correspondent Jonathan Hunt, reporting live from Tel Aviv, described the announcement as a "political and financial earthquake" in the region, saying Israel's Finance Ministry told local media it had been entirely unaware of any U.S. intention to cancel the $4 billion in aid. Israel is by far the largest recipient of U.S. foreign assistance, having received more than $300 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars since 1948, according to the report.
The aid has drawn growing scrutiny in recent years as Israel has carried out a military campaign in Gaza that numerous human rights groups and a United Nations committee have described as genocide. Hunt noted that Trump's remarks were also framed by the president as a way to remove a talking point Democrats had been using against Republicans, though the broader policy rationale was not spelled out in detail during the interview.
The announcement came one day after Iran fired surface-to-air missiles at U.S. aircraft flying over the Strait of Hormuz, prompting the U.S. military to carry out strikes on Qeshm Island, which sits in the middle of the strait. The timing placed the aid remark in the middle of a tense military standoff involving Washington, Tehran and Israel's broader security interests.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously supported a plan to phase out U.S. aid to Israel over a period of 10 years, according to the report. He has also backed a plan to integrate the U.S. and Israeli militaries in a manner that critics warn would be difficult to reverse. Separately, the New York Times reported that Trump said he had reached a deal with Netanyahu months earlier, describing the new arrangement as a replacement for the existing aid package.
Whether the end-of-year cutoff will be formalized, and how it would be structured, remained unclear from the remarks made on Tuesday. The announcement, made casually during a morning television appearance, leaves open questions for both governments about budgeting, military cooperation and the future of a long-standing aid relationship that has shaped U.S. policy in the Middle East for decades.