Trump says US will end military aid to Israel as midterm voting begins

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Washington will stop giving Israel about $4 billion a year in military aid, as polls opened across the United States for the midterm elections.

Trump made the remarks in a phone interview with Fox News. He said he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had made a deal months ago, and that the US would keep selling arms to Israel and would help it if needed. Euronews reported that Trump dated the change to 2027, while CBC and Al Jazeera quoted him as saying the payments would stop by the end of this year.

"Look, we give them $4 billion of things and money, and they don't need it," Trump said. He said Netanyahu raised the idea, which he said the two had discussed for a couple of years.

Trump tied the decision to campaign criticism. He singled out Abdul El-Sayed, a Democrat running for the Senate in Michigan who has opposed unconditional military aid to Israel, and said the aid had become an easy talking point for critics.

CBC reported that it was not immediately clear which funding Trump meant or how it would end this year. A memorandum of understanding providing $3.8 billion in annual U.S. military aid does not expire until 2028. Euronews described the current deal as a 10-year, $38 billion agreement signed in 2016 under Barack Obama.

Congress authorized the funding in a 2020 law, but the Senate and House must pass appropriations bills each year to release the money. Al Jazeera's Kimberly Halkett said Trump cannot end the aid unilaterally.

Thomas Warrick of the Atlantic Council's Future of DHS Project told Al Jazeera he expects military assistance to be phased out during 2027 rather than by the end of 2026, because several missile-defence and counter-drone programs cannot easily move to foreign military sales.

Netanyahu's office did not immediately comment, and the White House did not respond to Reuters, according to CBC. Gadi Eisenkot, Netanyahu's main rival, said it was dangerous that Israel's defence establishment learned of the change through the media, and he called for the prime minister to be replaced.

In October, Netanyahu told an Israeli television channel that Israelis should get used to the idea that American aid at past levels would not continue, "because America has changed."

Former Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote on X that the move would not change the election results.

The announcement came as tensions rose in the Gulf. A U.S. official said American forces carried out defensive strikes on Iranian targets in the Strait of Hormuz that were using surface-to-air missiles, and Iranian state television reported explosions on Qeshm Island. Iran's parliament speaker and chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, said Tehran had delivered a "firm and rational response" to Washington.