‘Like a bolt from the blue’: Israel’s president shocked by Trump announcing end of aid

By Tal Shalev, Oren Liebermann, CNN

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said it was “like a bolt from the blue” when President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday, the day of the midterm elections, that he would end US aid to Israel.

Herzog brought up the issue during a meeting with the Yashar party, led by Gadi Eisenkot, the main rival of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“The issue of the American aid worries me greatly, and it also fell on me like a bolt from the blue. We have an (memorandum of understanding) with the US that is supposed to last until 2028 and this is one of the major goals, and therefore a government must be formed and not go to repeated elections,” he said.

Trump said aid to Israel would end this year, two years ahead of the formal end of the memorandum of understanding (MoU), which provides Israel with $3.8 billion per year to purchase American weaponry.

But he offered few details in the announcement, which was made in an Election Day phone interview with Fox News. Netanyahu has not made any public comment on the announcement.

“It’s a bad talking point because when you say, ‘Why don’t we give everybody $4 billion?’ Israel’s our number one; we give them more than anybody else, and they no longer need it,” Trump told Fox.

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said he was looking for clarification on what would happen. In an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 News, he defended military aid, which has grown increasingly unpopular in both the Democratic and Republican parties.

“Americans need to know the value of the relationship,” he said. “It’s not about what Americans are putting into it. It’s about what they are getting out of it. Maybe we haven’t done a good job helping the American public to recognize and be grateful for the partnership with Israel, which has benefited their lives every day.”

Huckabee also disagreed with Vice President JD Vance, who said on X that the relationship with Israel contributed to Republican losses in the midterms. A staunch support of Israel, Huckabee said, “I don’t think support for Israel is toxic in the conservative wing and the Republican Party.”

A task for Herzog

While Herzog navigates Trump’s announcement the US is cutting off $4 billion in aid to Israel, he faces a crucial task following elections in his own country.

Eisenkot emerged with a majority of the incoming Israeli Knesset’s backing after the conclusion of the president’s meetings with the elected parties, following Israel’s election late last month. Herzog held two days of consultations with representatives of all of the parties elected to the incoming Knesset.

Netanyahu secured the backing of only 46 seats after one of his ultra-Orthodox allies refused to endorse him, leaving him far short of the 61-seat majority needed. Eisenkot secured the backing of lawmakers holding 67 seats, but 19 of those are held by Arab-led parties, complicating his path to oust Israel’s longest-serving leader.

Herzog must now decide who gets the mandate to form the next government, a decision he said he will make Sunday. “The results of the consultations may appear clear, but the authority vested in me by law is to determine who has the ability to form a government, and that is not entirely clear,” he said after meeting all the parties. In a statement Thursday evening, Eisenkot’s party made it clear it expects to receive the mandate to form a government.

“The decision of the people and the clear parliamentary majority leave no room for doubt: Israeli citizens chose change and expressed absolute no-confidence in outgoing Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government,” the Yashar party said. Netanyahu, the statement continued, “has no mandate, no majority, and no trust of the people.”

Whoever is chosen will have 28 days to negotiate with other parties over cabinet posts, budgets and policies. A 14-day extension is possible. If he fails, the mandate passes to another candidate for another four weeks. If he fails too, the Knesset gets a short window to put forward another candidate. If it cannot, the country automatically returns to the polls. Until Israel has a new government, Netanyahu will remain caretaker prime minister.

Netanyahu, who lost his parliamentary majority, is still challenging the election results and claims the vote was “stolen” by Arab-led parties through bribery, foreign funding and fraud. The opposition says he is trying to delay the swearing in of the Knesset Tuesday, and to prevent plans to replace the Knesset speaker with a lawmaker from the opposition.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.