Editorial Roundup: The Wall Street Journal says Trump and Netanyahu discussed ending U.S. aid to Israel … slowly
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President Trump's Election Day surprise that he will end aid to Israel is less and more than meets the eye. Less because he is acting on a proposal of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and joint plans that have been in the works for at least a year. More because of what the move says about the worsening politics of the U.S.-Israel relationship.
Asked on Fox News about antisemitism and Israel in light of Abdul El-Sayed's Michigan Senate campaign, Mr. Trump riffed until he announced something new: "As far as paying Israel, 'Bibi' Netanyahu and I have made a deal. We give Israel $4 billion a year, and we made a deal months ago that we're stopping."
Mr. Trump said Israel has prospered such that it no longer needs annual aid. "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. They've been a great ally," he said, "much more reliable than most."
Mr. Netanyahu brought up ending aid, the President added, "because he understands that this is one of their points of contention." The left uses the aid to score cheap rhetorical points against Israel and Republicans who support it, Mr. Trump said. "Why should we suffer the slings from lunatics like an El-Sayed when they don't need it? It's a bad talking point . . . It's almost too easy a target."
The U.S. aid is often misunderstood. It took off in earnest only after Israel's victory in the 1967 war, in which the Jewish state proved it could be regionally dominant. Phasing out U.S. aid has since been an aim of the Israeli right, and in 1996 Mr. Netanyahu initiated a gradual end to U.S. economic aid to Israel. Since 2008 only the military aid has remained--now $3.8 billion a year, including joint missile-defense research, set to expire in 2028.
Our reporting bears out that Mr. Netanyahu first proposed winding down this aid. He said as much to our Elliot Kaufman in 2024, and he spoke about it with Mr. Trump in 2025. The idea is to leave behind whatever patron-client relationship remains from the 1970s, when aid accounted for some 10% of Israel's GDP--it's now 0.5%--and instead invest jointly in military R&D as partners.
At first the President was receptive. But when Mr. Netanyahu raised it again in a December 2025 meeting, Mr. Trump wasn't convinced that ending aid was in either country's interest. Israel had to budget 6.5% of GDP for defense in 2025 and was planning to use U.S. aid to buy F-35s, F-15s, defense interceptors and more before 2028. On the U.S. side, nearly all the $3.8 billion in aid has to be spent in America, and the U.S. receives preferential access to Israeli military technology while keeping it out of Chinese and Russian hands.
With a high-tech and defense-tech power like Israel, which has a habit of learning from its combat experience and improving U.S. systems, there's a strong national-interest case for U.S. military aid. That's especially true if it's restructured as U.S. investment in missile defense, counterdrone tech and subterranean warfare, as well as AI, quantum and the like.
Mr. Trump came around to the Netanyahu idea; if Israel no longer wanted aid, why force it? Discussions advanced to phase out the aid over several years, starting at the end of 2026. That's why the President's statement on Tuesday that it would all end in two months caught Israelis unaware.
Did Mr. Trump misstate the point? Or did he deliberately put it in the way he felt would be most politically advantageous?
The President may think it will help him, perhaps with young voters or the very online segment of his base, to be seen cutting off Israel. This augurs poorly for the Jewish state, even if it would rather tear off the Band-Aid with Mr. Trump, and map out a more sustainable relationship, than have a hostile Democratic President end aid as punishment after 2028.