Trump says US will stop funding Israel at the end of the year

President Donald Trump says American payments to Israel will end by the close of this year, the result of an arrangement he reached with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Speaking on Fox News' Fox and Friends, Trump said the two leaders settled the matter months ago, and that the current annual sum of $4 billion would cease. He added that Washington would still assist Israel if it asked for help, according to The Independent.

The announcement would mark a sharp change in a long relationship. The Council on Foreign Relations calculates that Israel has taken in more than $300bn in economic and military assistance since 1948, after adjusting for inflation, making it the biggest cumulative beneficiary of American aid anywhere. Trump, who referred to Netanyahu as Bibi, did not lay out further terms of the agreement in the remarks as reported.

The Independent notes that at least $21.7bn in military aid flowed to Israel during the two years after the October 7, 2023 attacks. Those attacks set off the war in Gaza and came before joint American and Israeli strikes on Iran.

Summarized by PolitiKool from The Independent’s reporting. Read the full story at The Independent →