President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the United States will stop paying Israel its annual aid by the end of this year, telling Fox News' "Fox & Friends" in a phone interview on Election Day that he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reached the deal months ago. "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 said.
"We've already agreed that by the end of this year we won't be paying Israel. They're fine with it," he added. "Now, we'll help Israel if they need it." Trump said Israel does not need the money and that its military would still be able to buy American weapons.
A $38 billion agreement
U.S. military assistance to Israel is currently governed by a 10-year memorandum of understanding signed in 2016, which commits $38 billion from fiscal 2019 through 2028: $3.3 billion a year in Foreign Military Financing plus $500 million for missile defense. Trump did not say how ending the payments early would square with that agreement or whether Congress would be asked to act. There was no immediate comment from Netanyahu's office.
'I have total control of the Middle East'
In the same interview, Trump described the relationship between the two allies in blunt terms. "I have total control of the Middle East," he said. "Israel is the helper. We are the big, they are the small," adding that Iran's leaders call them "the Great Satan and the Little Satan," the slogans Tehran has used for the U.S. and Israel since the 1979 revolution.
Trump also made a sweeping remark about Muslims and antisemitism: "With Muslims comes the hatred of Jewish people, the long-term hatred of Jewish people."
Iran strike 'wasn't war'
Asked about the overnight U.S. strike on a newly completed Iranian air defense facility, Trump played it down: "It was just a minor attack. It wasn't war." He also said a trade deal with Canada was close.
The remarks came as Americans voted in midterm elections that will decide control of the House and Senate, with the war with Iran weighing on voters. A Pew Research Center survey found 65% of Americans disapprove of Trump's handling of the conflict, while 33% approve, and rising fuel prices linked to the war have become a major concern. According to the Associated Press, Netanyahu has been pushing for more strikes on Iran after the midterms.
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