El-Sayed Praises Trump For Cutting Israel Aid: ‘I’d Love To Work With Him’ - Newsweek

Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed has praised Donald Trump’s plan to end nearly $4 billion in annual U.S. military assistance to Israel.

El-Sayed said he would be willing to work with the president on the issue despite their bitter exchanges during the Michigan Senate campaign.

The newly elected Democrat’s support represents a rare point of agreement between the two political opponents. However, questions remain about how the administration would end the assistance by December 2026 when the current U.S.-Israel funding framework runs through fiscal year 2028.

El-Sayed was asked about the proposal by Joe Scarborough during an appearance on Morning Joe on Thursday.

"I agree with him on that," El-Sayed said. "I don’t think that we should be continuing to subsidize a foreign military that has done the worst things with our money."

He added: "I’d love to work with him on doing that. In fact, I don’t know that we should be continuing to sell weapons to a country that is, again, using our weapons to do awful things."

The distinction between military assistance and arms sales could prove important. Trump has said Israel would remain able to purchase American weapons after the annual assistance ends; El-Sayed indicated that he wants Washington to restrict those sales as well.

In an earlier interview with NPR, El-Sayed said the president was "actually right on this policy." However, he added that he wanted the United States to "stop selling weaponry" that he said was being used to commit "genocide and apartheid."

El-Sayed has used those terms to describe Israeli actions. Israel has rejected accusations that it is committing genocide in Gaza.

Trump announced during an Election Day interview with Fox News that the United States would stop providing Israel with approximately $4 billion in annual assistance by the end of 2026.

The president said that he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had reached an agreement months earlier, adding that Israel had become prosperous enough to operate without direct American assistance.

"They’re fine with it because they’ve become a very successful country," Trump said. "They don’t need it. And we won’t be paying anymore."

Trump said Israel would remain able to purchase American weapons and could receive further U.S. assistance if necessary. He did not provide details about how the cutoff would be implemented.

Netanyahu had previously supported gradually ending his country’s reliance on American military aid. During a May appearance on 60 Minutes, he said: "It’s time that we weaned ourselves from the remaining military support."

However, Netanyahu had outlined a drawdown over approximately a decade, rather than the accelerated timetable announced by Trump. He said the relationship could instead shift toward joint defense, intelligence and technology projects.

The annual assistance provided under the existing agreement is $3.8 billion, with Trump using a rounded figure of $4 billion.

Under a 10-year memorandum of understanding signed in 2016, the United States pledged $38 billion in security assistance to Israel over fiscal years 2019 through 2028.

That comprises $33 billion in Foreign Military Financing and $5 billion for cooperative missile-defense programs.

On an annual basis, the package consists of $3.3 billion in military financing and $500 million for missile defense.

The memorandum is not a legally binding treaty and did not require Senate ratification. However, the assistance levels outlined in it remain subject to approval by Congress, which holds the constitutional power to appropriate federal funding.

The Congressional Research Service reported in June that lawmakers have historically provided aid broadly in line with the relevant memoranda, while also approving additional assistance outside them.

It is therefore unclear whether Trump intends to ask Congress to withdraw or withhold funding, negotiate a replacement agreement or use some other mechanism to end the assistance early.

The alignment between Trump and El-Sayed is notable because the president backed Republican Mike Rogers during the Michigan Senate campaign and repeatedly attacked El-Sayed, including over his Muslim faith and opposition to continued U.S. military support for Israel.

El-Sayed defeated Rogers to become the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate. He campaigned on redirecting money spent overseas toward schools, health care and infrastructure in the United States.

Policy toward Israel was also a major dividing line in the Democratic contest. Representative Haley Stevens, whom El-Sayed defeated for the nomination, endorsed Rogers shortly before the election following a public dispute over the issue.

During Thursday’s interview, El-Sayed also addressed concerns about antisemitism and the safety of Jewish residents in Michigan. He said he had grown up alongside Jewish classmates and attended friends’ bar and bat mitzvahs.

"I have so much respect for the Jewish faith and Jewish contributions to American life," he said, adding that Jewish children should be able to attend synagogues and schools safely.

Although El-Sayed and Trump agree on ending direct assistance, their positions may diverge over whether American weapons should continue to be sold to Israel and what form the security relationship should take afterward.

The next steps will depend partly on Congress. Until the administration supplies details, Trump’s announcement remains a statement of intent rather than a complete plan for ending the existing arrangement.

Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.

Register for our November 10 discussion, 'Newsweek Webinar: How the Politics of AI Could Shape Midterms,' which will examine how AI policy played in key races, data centers, lobbying and the political lines that emerged.