Trump says $4 billion a year in aid to Israel ends this year

The money Trump described comes mostly from a 10-year, $38 billion agreement signed in 2016. It covers fiscal years 2019 through 2028 and promises $3.3 billion a year in military financing grants plus $500 million a year for joint missile defense, or $3.8 billion a year, according to the Congressional Research Service and NBC News.

What the evidence shows: Trump's "end of the year" timeline runs ahead of the paperwork. The current agreement is not slated to end until fiscal 2028, and the Congressional Research Service notes that such agreements are not legally binding and that Congress decides each year how much aid to fund. The White House did not explain to PolitiFact how the aid would stop early. (Source: [CRS, June 2026](https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/IN12695); [PolitiFact, Nov. 3](https://politifact.com/article/2026/nov/03/trump-netanyahu-israel-gaza-el-sayed-michigan/).)

The phaseout idea is not new. Netanyahu wrote in a June 1 letter to Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind.) that "the time has now arrived for us to move from aid recipient to partner," and Secretary of State Marco Rubio told House appropriators in June that Israel wanted to taper aid to zero within 10 years, PolitiFact reported. That is a much slower pace than the one Trump described.

Other U.S. support would continue. Israel has about $9 billion in active U.S. loan guarantees, one expert told PolitiFact, and Congress set aside $202 million for joint U.S.-Israeli defense programs outside the agreement for fiscal 2026, according to CRS. A House-passed defense bill would also tie Israel more closely into U.S. military research; the Senate has not voted on it.

Reaction split along unusual lines. In Israel, opposition figure Gadi Eisenkot said Netanyahu "can no longer be trusted, and he must be replaced," and Democrats party leader Yair Golan called the cutoff "a severe blow to Israel's security," NBC News reported. In the U.S., aid has become a campaign issue: a Chicago Council on Global Affairs poll in July found about 56% of Americans want military aid to Israel cut or stopped, up from 38% in 2012, according to PolitiFact.

Markets read the remarks as a sign of lower war risk. Brent crude fell as much as 3.3% to $101.32 a barrel after the interview, its lowest since Oct. 8, Reuters reported, before trading around $103.44, down about 1%, by early afternoon Eastern time.

How it got here: In January, Netanyahu said he hoped to "taper off" U.S. military aid over the next decade (NBC News). On June 1 he wrote to Rep. Stutzman about moving from "aid recipient to partner," and in June Rubio told House appropriators Israel wanted aid to reach zero within 10 years (PolitiFact). On June 4, the Congressional Research Service laid out the choices facing Congress, noting the aid agreement is not legally binding. On Nov. 3, Trump said the aid would end by year's end.

What's still unknown: whether the White House will put the change in writing, which funds stop first (the $3.3 billion in grants, the $500 million for missile defense, or both), what happens to weapons orders already paid for with U.S. grants, and whether the next Congress, whose makeup voters are deciding today, will go along.

The announcement rests on President Trump's remarks in a Nov. 3 phone interview with Fox & Friends, as Fox News, NBC News, Reuters and PolitiFact reported them. Netanyahu's office declined to comment to NBC News, Israeli Finance Ministry sources spoke to ABC News anonymously, and the White House did not give PolitiFact details on how or when the aid would stop. Background on the 2016 aid agreement comes from the Congressional Research Service. Photos are White House file photos from 2025, not from today.