WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he made a deal with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Washington would stop US$4 billion in funding to Israel after the end of this year. Speaking to Fox News’ Fox and Friends, Trump said Israel no longer needed the funding and that some Democrats and left-wing politicians were using the U.S. financial support to Israel as a talking point to criticize Republicans. “Now, as far as paying Israel, 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,” Trump told Fox News’ Fox and Friends. “We’ve already agreed that by the end of this year we won’t be paying Israel. Now we’ll help Israel if they need it,” he said. There was no immediate comment from Netanyahu’s office on Trump’s remarks. It was not immediately clear which exact funding Trump meant. A memorandum of understanding that provides $3.8 billion annual U.S. military aid to Israel is approaching its expiration date in 2028 and conversations have been under way on how Washington’s assistance to Israel would evolve beyond that date. “They can buy whatever they want. They can buy whatever they want. So can Europe. We make the greatest weapons in the world,” Trump added on Tuesday. Netanyahu said in a May interview with CBS that he hoped to wean Israel off U.S. military support within a decade. In a June letter to a U.S. congressman he wrote that the time had come for Israel “to move from aid recipient to partner.” U.S. public support for Israel has fallen since the Gaza war began in 2023, particularly among Democrats. A June Quinnipiac University poll found 48 per cent of voters and 66 per cent of Democrats believe the United States is too supportive of Israel, up from 16 per cent and 20 per cent when the question was first asked in 2017. Support for Israel among Democratic voters has plummeted, candidates critical of Israel are winning Democratic primaries and even moderate lawmakers are increasingly willing to challenge decades of U.S. support for Israel. “The left uses the $4 billion payment that everybody knows about, well it’s no secret, as a signal of unfairness, and we can’t allow that to happen,” Trump said. “We were giving them 4 billion, we are, but it gets cut off at the end of the year,” he said. “Why? Because they don’t need it.” (Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, Doina Chiacu and Susan Heavey; Editing by Michelle Nichols)
