Trump to end $4 billion of annual U.S. aid to Israel

President Donald Trump announced Tuesday morning that the United States would stop paying Israel roughly $4 billion in annual aid.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposed the plan himself, Trump said in a telephone interview on Fox & Friends Tuesday morning. The aid arrangement would end in December, though Israel would still be able to purchase American weapons, the president added. Israel had become a thriving, successful country and no longer needed U.S. aid, though the United States would still help Israel if needed, Trump said.

The United States was finally respected on the global stage again, and Democrats could no longer weaponize the aid to Israel, Trump added. The memorandum allotting nearly $4 billion annually to Israel was signed by former Democratic President Barack Obama in 2016, but had been used in recent years as ammunition against the Republican party during several 2026 Senate races, Trump said. Trump specifically referenced the Michigan race, calling Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s use of the topic a series of slings from a lunatic.

What’s the latest on the ongoing conflict with Iran? Trump’s announcement on Tuesday followed U.S. strikes on the Iranian island of Qeshm on Monday, which the president referenced in the interview. The island is strategically positioned at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz, a heavily contested shipping route, the president said. Iran had been constructing an air-defense facility on the island for nearly two months, and Trump said that U.S. forces watched it being built before destroying it as soon as it was completed. The president characterized the attack as nice and minor, adding that it didn’t constitute war.

Jason Brodsky, policy director at the nonprofit organization United Against Nuclear Iran, told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that the latest strikes aimed to degrade Iranian capabilities to threaten the strait. The strikes blinded and deprived the Iranian regime of the ability to harass commercial shipping, which was fundamental to U.S. national security interests, he added.