Trump axes Israel's $4B yearly military aid as midterm polls open

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the US will stop sending Israel roughly $4 billion a year in military aid starting in 2027. He dropped the news by phone to Fox News as polls opened across the country for the midterm elections. Washington will keep selling weapons to its closest Middle East ally, he added. Trump argued Israel no longer needs the money. "Look, we give them $4 billion of things and money, and they don't need it," he said. He claimed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pitched him the idea and that the two had been chewing it over for a couple of years. Netanyahu's office stayed quiet — no immediate comment. Trump tied the move straight to the campaign, saying the aid had become too easy a target for Israel's critics — naming Abdul El-Sayed, a Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan and an outspoken opponent. Unlike France, Spain, Italy and much of Europe, the US has no electoral silence rule barring political comment on polling day, so the president was free to talk while ballots were being cast. The reaction in Israel came fast. Gadi Eisenkot, Netanyahu's main rival, called it dangerous that the defence establishment learned about the shift through the media, and said the prime minister should be replaced. The current arrangement is a 10-year, $38 billion agreement signed in 2016 under Barack Obama, running until 2028. It landed as the Gulf heated up again. A US official said American forces carried out defensive strikes on Iranian targets in the Strait of Hormuz that were using surface-to-air missiles, while Iranian state television reported explosions on Qeshm Island. Iran's parliament speaker and chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, told lawmakers that Tehran had delivered a "firm and rational response" to Washington, and said it was now on the US to stop a fresh war. He said Iran remains ready "with its finger on the trigger" — but never said what that response was.

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