US President Donald Trump has told "Fox News" that he has reached agreement with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on ending US financial aid to Israel. Trump said, "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, They’re fine with it. They don’t need it and we won’t pay Israel any longer.
From the President’s remarks, it is unclear when the halt in aid will take effect - if it involves a gradual process or an immediate halt - and if this agreement applies to all components of the security assistance. These developments follow previous statements by Netanyahu expressing a desire to gradually reduce dependence on US aid.
Israel currently receives $3.8 billion in annual military assistance from the US, under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed in 2016 between the Barack Obama administration and the Israeli government. The agreement, which covers the years 2019-2028, entails a total of $38 billion in aid over a decade. Of this amount, $33 billion is earmarked primarily for defense procurement, while an additional $5 billion is allocated for joint missile defense programs, including Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and the Arrow system. The transfer of these funds is subject to annual budgetary approval by the US Congress.
According to data on US aid to Israel, total US aid commitments to Israel between 1946 and 2025 amount to about $175 billion, in nominal terms and unadjusted for inflation. Of this total, $124.5 billion was allocated for military aid, about $34.3 billion for economic aid, and roughly $16.1 billion for missile defense programs.
In recent years, routine aid has stood at $3.8 billion annually, though Washington has, on occasion, approved exceptional additional funding. In 2022, aid totaled $4.8 billion, and in 2024, following the outbreak of war in the wake of the October 7 massacre, it surged to $12.5 billion. Of that amount, $6.8 billion was earmarked for military aid and $5.7 billion for missile defense. In 2025, the volume of aid returned to its standard annual level of $3.8 billion.
Netanyahu has previously expressed a desire to reduce Israel’s dependence on US defense assistance, even setting a goal to phase it out entirely within a decade. The concept involves gradually transitioning from an aid-based model to a relationship rooted in security cooperation, technological development, and mutual procurement.
The current aid agreement is set to expire in September 2028, just months before the conclusion of Trump’s second term. Therefore, one of the central questions arising from Trump’s remarks is whether the agreement he refers to concerns the period following the expiration of the existing agreement, or whether there is an intention to also alter the current aid arrangements.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on November 3, 2026.
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