President Donald Trump said the U.S. will end about $4 billion in annual aid to Israel by the end of the year, saying he had reached an agreement with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Israel's our number one (recipient), we give them more than anybody else. And they no longer need it,” said Trump during an interview on Nov. 3 with Fox and Friends. “We've been doing it for years. Israel is a very thriving country. They don't need it.”
Trump's comments came on Election Day as voters head to polling booths to make their voices heard in the midterms.
U.S. aid to Israel amid its war in Gaza has been one of the most contentious issues leading up to the midterm elections.
In July, nearly half of House Democrats voted to cut off aid to Israel
through an amendment to State Department spending bill, signaling a lack of political support for a longtime ally. The measure did not pass due to support from Republicans.
Progressive Democratic candidates have used support from pro-Israel groups to establishment candidates as a cudgel in competitive Democratic primaries.
Public opinion on aid to Israel has also shifted. A New York Times/Siena poll found in May that three-quarters of Democratic voters opposed U.S. economic or military support for Israel.
Trump also mentioned Michigan's Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed who has been an outspoken critic of U.S. military aid to Israel and other countries, arguing that taxpayer dollars should be used to prioritize domestic needs like healthcare and education.
At a recent appearance with Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont at a "Students vs. Billionaires" town hall at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor, El-Sayed reiterated his stance.
“Right now, they're getting bombs and tanks and unconditional foreign military aid. I want to ban unconditional foreign military aid. I want to ban it to Israel, I want to ban it to Egypt, where my family immigrated from, to Jordan, to Pakistan, to Saudi Arabia, to Qatar, to all of them,” said El-Sayed. “I don't pay my tax dollars so another country gets a bomb or a tank. We pay our taxes so that our kids get good schools.”
Trump, speaking on Election Day, said Israel had been a “great ally, much more reliable than most.”
“Why should we suffer the slings from lunatics like in El Sayed when they don't need it?,” said Trump. “It's a bad talking point.”
Meanwhile, neither Netanyahu's party nor the opposition secured a majority in Israel's Oct. 27 parliamentary elections, leaving coalition negotiations to determine the country's next government.
Trump has said he would not be inclined to support Israel if Netanyahu doesn't win. Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida criticized Trump's stance.
"A true friend of Israel doesn't threaten to withhold U.S. support based on the result of its election… Israeli voters decide who leads Israel, not Trump," she wrote on X.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump says U.S. is cutting off aid to Israel by end of the year
