A deal to end billions of dollars a year in U.S. military assistance to Israel surfaced in the middle of a Fox News interview, and Benjamin Netanyahu’s office let it sit for days before answering.

President Donald Trump said in a Fox News interview on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026, election day, that he had agreed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end U.S. military assistance to Israel.

“I made a deal with Netanyahu that we’re going to stop giving Israel $4 billion a year. We’re not going to pay Israel anymore,” Trump said.

Trump tied the move to the Michigan Senate race. “Why should we put up with El-Sayed’s nonsense when they don’t need it?” he asked.

Netanyahu’s Office Breaks Its Silence

Netanyahu’s office responded publicly to the announcement for the first time on Friday, Nov. 6. “The transition by Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Trump from assistance to partnership demonstrates the strength and sophistication of our relationship, as well as its ability to adapt and remain resilient over time,” the office said.

Israeli officials put it more bluntly. “No final decision has been made. The issue is still under discussion, and no one is going to harm Israel,” they said.

Some Republicans have pointed to the Iran war and the administration’s close relationship with Israel as possible factors behind the party’s losses.

“They Did a Good Job”

Voters handed Democrats both chambers of Congress on Nov. 3, stripping Trump’s party of its majorities in the House and Senate.

Trump phoned into Fox News’s election night coverage around midnight and conceded to host Bret Baier. He sounded tired and at times slurred his words.

“Congratulations to the Democrats, they did a good job,” Trump said. “They’ve been looking for this one for 11 years, and they finally got it.”

He made no claim on the call that the vote had been rigged, an accusation that featured in his past responses to defeats, and he took no responsibility for the scale of the Republican collapse.

Weeks of Telling Crowds Otherwise

Trump defended himself all night on a single point — his own name had not been printed anywhere. He posted on Truth Social shortly after 10:30 p.m. Tuesday that he was not on the ballot and that his party would have won in a landslide if he had been.

Baier reminded him that he had spent weeks urging rally crowds to pretend he was on the ballot. Baier said of the map that “it doesn’t seem like that message got out to the Republican base.” Trump repeated that he had not been on it.

Trump had told Republicans to “pretend I’m on the ballot” as early as September, when he opened the party’s midterm convention in Dallas, and he kept up the message on the campaign trail.

Trump blamed his own party’s nominees for the losses. His base did not like the candidates, he said, and some candidates he endorsed fought him, while others failed to get voters off the couch. Ken Paxton lost in Texas and Darline Graham lost in South Carolina, both reliable GOP territory.

Trump rejected the idea that the outcome was a hit on him, calling the past two years the greatest in the history of the presidency, on the economy and on everything else his administration had done.

He Hit Fox, Then Called In

Before the call, Trump attacked Fox News twice on Truth Social. He posted earlier that evening that the network’s ratings were down 27 percent, blaming too much airtime for what he called Trump Deranged Dumocrats, with the insistence that the problem was the network and not him. A second post, minutes before his call, faulted Fox for booking former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and blamed the network for the Republican losses for handing a platform to the opposition.

Where He Won’t Compromise

Trump said he is open to working with Democrats, with limits. He ruled out any compromise on immigration or on transgender issues, the two fights that defined his second term. The veto, he said, is one of the stronger powers a president has, and he expects Democrats to send him legislation he regards as insane. He plans to reject it.

The result capped two turbulent years that included an unpopular war in Iran that sent gas prices soaring, a volatile tariff regime, a cost of living crisis that has not eased and heavy-handed immigration enforcement that has cost U.S. citizens their lives.

Three days later, chief of staff Susie Wiles was out. Trump announced on Friday, Nov. 6, that Stephen Miller, his deputy chief of staff for policy, would replace her. “Not because of the election. It’s just time,” Trump said, adding, “The election wasn’t my election. I wasn’t on the ballot.”