Rubio: Israel rich enough to buy own weapons, Trump wants swift end to military aid

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday that US President Donald Trump believes Israel is “rich enough” to buy American weapons without relying on military aid, and that the president wants that arrangement to come into effect in the near future.

Trump, said Rubio, “would like for the financing portion to end as soon as possible.”

“We’re working through that in terms of how we negotiate the memorandum of understanding,” he told reporters at the G7 meeting in Paris. “But the president’s expectation is that Israel is now prosperous and rich enough to be able to be a sales country. They can buy the weapons from us, but we no longer have to provide the financing.”

A 10-year memorandum of understanding on US military assistance to Israel, which gives the Jewish state $3.8 billion annually, expires at the end of September 2028.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier this year that he wants to move Israel off US aid over the course of a decade. But Trump said last week that there is an agreement for the aid to cease by the end of the year, a statement that took many top officials on both sides by surprise.

Explaining his position, Trump suggested he didn’t want to give ammunition to critics who knock Washington for giving more to the Jewish state than any other country.

Rubio said that Israel can “absolutely” get off aid by the end of the year if it wants to.

“They also produce weaponry, by the way, so part of the MOU would also involve the ability to co-produce on some things,” Rubio said, adding that “we’ll negotiate the timeline.”

“The president wants it as soon as possible,” he says. “He thinks it makes sense to do it as soon as possible.”

Trump’s declaration appeared to almost certainly be false, given that the 10-year memorandum of understanding on US military assistance to Israel, which gives the Jewish state $3.8 billion annually, runs for nearly two more years.

The US spends more on military aid to Israel than to any other country, but the memorandum of understanding, which began in 2019, requires the majority of those funds to be spent on weapons manufactured in the US.

Since its founding in 1948, Israel has received more than $300 billion, adjusted for inflation, in US economic and military assistance, according to figures from the Council on Foreign Relations, far more than any other country has received since 1946.

The US committed to providing billions in military assistance to Israel and Egypt each year when they signed their 1979 US-brokered peace treaty.

While US aid once made up a significant chunk of Israel’s military spending, the percentage it makes up of those funds has significantly declined in recent years as Israel’s economy has flourished.

Under the 2025 budget, the Defense Ministry’s budget swelled to a record NIS 110 billion ($29 billion) out of a total defense budget of NIS​ 136 billion ($36.9 billion).

Part of Israel’s push to end aid stems from frustrations during the Gaza war when several allies halted arms supplies, including the Biden administration, which held up the transfer of some munitions over concerns they could be used in ways that would cause undue harm to Palestinian civilians.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.