Trump Says US Will End $4 Billion Annual Aid to Israel in 2027, Shift to Arms Sales

President Donald Trump says the United States will stop providing $4 billion in aid each year to Israel in 2027 but will continue selling arms to its closest ally in the Middle East. The Republican president made the remarks in a phone call with Fox News Channel on Tuesday.

Trump said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had approached him about the idea and that the two of them have been talking about it for a couple of years. Trump said Israel does not need the aid and that it is a lot of money for the U.S. to spend.

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

Trump also said that U.S. aid to Israel has become a Democratic talking point for candidates such as Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed. The source material does not include a response from El-Sayed or from Israeli government officials.

The United States has sent tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Israel over the last few years. An academic study published last year found that the U.S. under the administrations of President Joe Biden, a Democrat, and Trump provided at least $21.7 billion in military assistance to Israel after the start of the Gaza war in 2023. That study was published on the second anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Israel that provoked the conflict.

A separate study, also published last year by the Costs of War project at Brown University’s Watson School of International and Public Affairs, said the U.S. had spent roughly $10 billion more on security aid and operations in the broader Middle East in the previous two years. According to the report, both studies relied on open source material for most of their findings, but they offered some of the most comprehensive accountings of U.S. military aid to close ally Israel and estimated the costs of direct American military involvement in the Middle East (Proverbs 18:17).

Source: Read the original report