Trump says the US will stop funding Israel after the end of 2026, under a deal he says he made with Netanyahu
President Donald Trump said on Fox News' Fox & Friends on Tuesday morning that he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a deal months ago under which the United States will stop providing funding to Israel after the end of this year. 'We give Israel $4 billion a year, and we made a deal months ago that we're stopping,' he said. 'We've already agreed that by the end of this year we won't be paying Israel. Now we'll help Israel if they need it.' Trump said Israel no longer needs the money — 'Israel is a very thriving country' — that ending the aid was Netanyahu's own idea, and that Israel can still buy whatever American weapons it wants. What is verified is that Trump said this, in his own words: the statement itself is carried on this page as fact. What is not yet established is the deal said to stand behind it — no Israeli government confirmation had been given when this page published, no White House or State Department statement had been read, and Trump did not say whether the end of the year cuts short the existing security-assistance agreement, which provides about $3.8 billion a year through fiscal 2028, or through what instrument the stop would happen.
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This story is still being checked. Claims below are published as claims — never dressed as facts — and each one moves only when the evidence earns it.
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Key points
- Trump said it himself, on the record: a deal made 'months ago' with Netanyahu ends US funding to Israel after the end of 2026 — the words are verified, quoted identically by Reuters and Fox News.
- He put the funding at $4 billion a year, said Israel 'don't need it', and said Israel can still buy US weapons: 'We'll help Israel if they need it.'
- The agreement actually in force provides about $3.8 billion a year through fiscal 2028; whether the year-end stop ends it early, and by what instrument, was not clarified.
- Israel has confirmed nothing: Netanyahu's office gave no immediate comment, and his own last stated position, in May, was a hope to wean Israel off US military aid within a decade.
What happened
On Tuesday morning, 3 November — the morning of the US midterm elections — President Donald Trump spoke to Fox News' Fox & Friends and announced that US funding to Israel would stop after the end of the year, under what he described as a deal reached months earlier with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 'We give Israel $4 billion a year, and we made a deal months ago that we're stopping,' he said. 'We've already agreed that by the end of this year we won't be paying Israel. Now we'll help Israel if they need it.' He said the support Israel receives covers 'things and money' — military aid, cash or 'barter' — that Israel, 'a very thriving country', no longer needs it, that ending it was Netanyahu's own suggestion, and that Israel remains free to buy American weapons.
What has been established is the statement: a president does not need anyone's permission, or anyone's confirmation, for his own words to be reported as his words, and this page verifies them from the broadcast reports. What has not been established is everything the words point at. The agreement in force between the two countries provides about $3.8 billion a year until fiscal 2028, and Trump did not say whether the end of this year breaks it early, which funds stop, or what paper the stop will be written on. Israel's government had not commented when this page published; Netanyahu's own public position, given to CBS in May, was that he hoped to wean Israel off US military aid within a decade — a direction that rhymes with Trump's announcement, on a very different clock.
Both sides, in their own words
Both sides heard. Neither believed for free. Publishing a side's version is not endorsing it — the claim checks below are where verdicts live.
Side A · President Trump's position
- Trump said he and Netanyahu 'made a deal months ago' under which the US stops paying Israel after the end of this year: 'We give Israel $4 billion a year... We've already agreed that by the end of this year we won't be paying Israel' (Fox & Friends, via Reuters and Fox News).
- He said the idea came from Netanyahu himself — that Netanyahu said 'I think it would be appropriate if we do not receive aid' — and that the two had discussed ending the assistance for years (Fox News; New York Post).
- He said Israel no longer needs the money ('Israel is a very thriving country'), that the support has covered 'things and money' — military aid, cash or 'barter' — that the US would still help Israel 'if they need it', and that Israel can buy whatever American weapons it wants (Fox News; Reuters).
- He framed the aid as a political liability at home, calling the roughly $4 billion 'the best talking point that these lunatics on the left have' (New York Post; Reuters).
Side B · Israel's position
- Netanyahu's office gave no immediate comment on Trump's remarks (Reuters, Tuesday). Israel's formal response is awaited and will be added to this page when it comes.
- Netanyahu's own most recent stated position, in a May interview with CBS, was that he hoped to wean Israel off US military support within a decade (Reuters; Fox News).
- Nothing from the Israeli government read in this pass confirms a deal to end the funding at the end of 2026, or any terms: Trump's account of Netanyahu's agreement is Trump's account, and is carried on Side A as such.
Independently verified
President Donald Trump said on Fox News' Fox & Friends on Tuesday morning, 3 November, that he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a deal months ago under which the United States will stop providing funding to Israel after the end of this year: 'Now, as far as paying Israel, Bibi Netanyahu and I have made a deal that we give Israel $4 billion a year, and we made a deal months ago that we're stopping. We've already agreed that by the end of this year we won't be paying Israel. Now we'll help Israel if they need it.' In the same interview Trump said Israel no longer needs the money — 'They don't need it. Israel is a very thriving country' — that the support has included 'things and money', described as military aid, cash or 'barter', that the US would still help Israel if it needed help, and that Israel can still buy whatever American weapons it wants. He said the idea of ending the aid came from Netanyahu — 'He said, "I think it would be appropriate if we do not receive aid"' — that the two had discussed it for years, and that the roughly $4 billion is 'the best talking point that these lunatics on the left have'. The US–Israel security-assistance agreement currently in force — a memorandum of understanding signed in 2016 — provides about $3.8 billion a year in military aid through fiscal 2028. Trump did not clarify in the interview whether 'the end of the year' terminates that agreement early, which funding exactly stops, or through what instrument. Netanyahu said in a May interview with CBS that he hoped to wean Israel off US military support within a decade.Not yet verified
A deal with Israel under which US funding actually ends at the end of 2026 exists and takes effect as Trump described.Claim by claim
Why this label: The statement is verified by the principal's own on-record words: Trump said it himself, in a broadcast interview, and the quotes are carried identically by Reuters (read in full in this pass) and by Fox News, the broadcaster itself, with the New York Post in agreement. A principal's own statement needs no other government's confirmation to be reported as said — what he said is fact; what follows from it is checked separately below.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
Why this label: All of this is Trump's own wording from the same interview, as reported by Fox News and the New York Post (both read in this pass), with Reuters carrying the same substance. It is verified as what he said; his attribution of the idea to Netanyahu is his account, and is labelled as such wherever this page uses it.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
Why this label: This rests, so far, on Trump's word alone. Reuters reported there was no immediate comment from Netanyahu's office, and no White House or State Department statement had been read when this page published. A claimed bilateral agreement is a separate claim from the statement announcing it: it will be upgraded only when Israel confirms it, or a document, budget line or official US statement shows it in force.
On the ladder: the evidence so far sits low — early, single or social sources. We publish the claim as a claim, never as fact.
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Why this label: The memorandum's figure and its 2028 horizon are stated by both Fox News and Reuters; both also record that the remarks did not detail the timing or terms against it, and Reuters noted it was 'not immediately clear which exact funding Trump meant'.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
Why this label: Netanyahu's own earlier words, reported by Reuters in its account of Tuesday's remarks and noted by Fox News. It is Israel's most recent stated position from its own principal; it speaks of a decade, not of an end-2026 stop, and it is not a confirmation of the deal Trump described.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
What we know / what we don't know yet
What we know
- Trump made the statement, in these words, on Fox & Friends on Tuesday morning — reported identically by Reuters and by Fox News, the broadcaster itself.
- The security-assistance agreement in force provides about $3.8 billion a year through fiscal 2028 (2016 memorandum of understanding).
- Netanyahu's office gave no immediate comment on the remarks (Reuters).
Show more (1)
- Netanyahu said in May that he hoped to wean Israel off US military support within a decade (CBS interview, via Reuters).
What we don't know yet
- Whether a formal agreement to end the funding at the end of 2026 exists in any written form, and whether Israel's government regards itself as party to it — Israel's response is awaited.
- Which funding exactly stops: the memorandum's military financing, other appropriations, or all assistance — Reuters noted it was 'not immediately clear which exact funding Trump meant'.
- Whether 'the end of the year' terminates the 2016 agreement two years early, and through what legal or budgetary instrument.
Show more (1)
- Any White House or State Department statement on the announcement — none had been read when this page published.
Why it matters
US military financing is the largest single strand of the US–Israel relationship, running at about $3.8 billion a year under an agreement signed in 2016 and due to run to 2028. A president announcing its end two years early would force Israel to replan defence budgets and arms procurement, and would change Washington's leverage over an ally at war on several fronts. But an announcement in a television interview is not yet an instrument: until a document, a budget line or an Israeli confirmation appears, what has verifiably changed is what the president of the United States has said — and that, said by him, is itself major news.
Background
Show the background timeline (4)
The US and Israel sign a 10-year memorandum of understanding providing about $3.8 billion a year in military aid across fiscal 2019–2028 — the agreement still in force (Reuters; Fox News).
Netanyahu tells CBS he hopes to wean Israel off US military support within a decade (via Reuters).
The US House of Representatives defeats an amendment to cut off aid to Israel, despite nearly half of Democrats supporting it (Al Jazeera).
On the morning of the US midterm elections, Trump tells Fox & Friends that the funding stops after the end of the year, under a deal he says he made with Netanyahu months earlier.
Update history
No silent edits. Every change is written here, with its time.
- Latest
Story published in Checking state (queue #1253). Basis: Trump's own on-record words on Fox & Friends, read via Reuters and Fox News in this pass and published under the principal's-own-words rule — a principal's statement is verified by his own words and is not held for the other side's confirmation. Awaited: Israel's response, any White House or State Department statement, and the terms and instrument of the claimed deal. Video check made: Fox News had not posted an official embeddable video of the interview when this page published; the gap will be closed if one appears.