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The United States<\/span> will stop providing $4 billion in annual aid to Israel starting next year, President Donald Trump claimed in an Election Day interview. While the U.S. will continue to sell arms to its closest Middle East ally, Trump\u2019s announcement \u2014 should it actually hold true \u2014 could represent a seismic shift in American foreign policy.<\/p>\n Still questions remain and experts are dubious that the claim is what it seems.<\/p>\n Trump told Fox News during a phone call on Tuesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had approached him with the idea years ago. He did not state specifically why he waited to announce the decision in the midst of a midterm vote in which his party is expected to lose its lock on Congress<\/a>, but noted that U.S. aid to Israel has become a Democratic talking point, singling out Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed. \u201cThe left uses the $4 billion payment \u2014 that everybody knows about, it\u2019s no secret \u2014 as a signal of unfairness,\u201d said<\/a> Trump.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n An August 2026 Fox News poll<\/a> found 55 percent of Michigan voters oppose continued military assistance to Israel, including 70 percent of Democrats, 66 percent of Independents, and 35 percent of Republicans.\u00a0<\/p>\n U.S. public support for Israel has fallen since the Gaza war<\/a> began in 2023, particularly among ?Democrats, as Netanyahu\u2019s government has slaughtered civilians with impunity. Almost 75,000 Gazans have been killed and nearly 176,000 wounded, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza. A recent U.N. report<\/a> said, \u201cIsraeli authorities and forces continue to commit genocidal acts with the genocidal intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Palestinians in Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n Amid the slaughter, sympathy for Israel among all Americans fell from roughly 50 percent to 36, while sympathy for Palestinians rose to 41 percent, according to a February Gallup poll<\/a>. Among Democrats, support for Israel plummeted from more than 50 percent in 2001 to roughly 17 percent this year. October 2026 polling<\/a> from the Institute for Middle East Understanding\u2019s D.C.-based IMEU Policy Project and YouGov found a majority of voters in six key swing states \u2014 Georgia, Iowa, Maine, North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas \u2014 support halting the transfer of bombs to Israel.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can consider it barter. You can consider military aid or cash,\u201d Trump said. \u201cLook, we give them $4 billion of things and money, and they don\u2019t need it. And I was approached by Bibi Netanyahu, and we\u2019ve been talking about it for a couple of years because it\u2019s a lot of money.\u201d<\/p>\n