Trump’s Israel policy betrays “America First” agenda

During his inaugural address, President Donald J. Trump made his promise to “simply put America first.” The appeal of the Trump 2025 presidential campaign, among other things, was this ‘America First’ pledge. After funding the Ukraine War to the tune of over $180 billion while Americans struggle with high cost of living and a monumental debt, a YouGov poll shows around 40% of Americans support cutting foreign aid.  

Since he took office, President Trump has enacted two major initiatives to tackle foreign aid. He has begun dismantling the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and also paused all federal aid to most countries. While I understand the beneficiary nature of soft power, I applaud these changes, as they align with the ‘America First’ agenda. With USAID funding initiatives across the globe to the tune of millions of dollars, gutting the agency while (almost) unilaterally pausing foreign aid seems like a no-brainer policy addition. However, despite the Trump administration taking a hardline stance against foreign aid, two of the top recipients remain on the government dole: Israel and Egypt. This highlights the Trump administration’s undying support for our “greatest ally,” Israel, at the cost of ‘America First’ policy measures like reduction of foreign aid.  

Israel has consistently been the top recipient of U.S. foreign aid. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, since its inception in the 1940s, Israel has received over $300 billion from U.S. taxpayers. The second-highest recipient is Egypt, which might as well be considered additional Israeli aid, at over $150 billion. The reason Egypt receives so much aid is because America has essentially been paying off Egypt since the 1970s to make peace with the Israeli state. If the plan is to cut foreign aid, why not remove it for the top two recipients? Foreign aid is only about 1-2% of the federal budget, so it is not the top financial priority. Soft power through aid can benefit the United States, as it can coerce allies to act in our interests. However, the United States and Israel have a “tail-wags-the-dog” relationship. For example, foreseeing the humanitarian crisis back in 2023, Biden demanded that Israel follow strict international law regarding their response to the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks. The United States ordered that the Israeli government ease their attacks due to significant civilian casualties. However, our “greatest ally” did not listen, and the latest figure shows 46,000 innocent Palestinians killed from Israel’s onslaught. Along with this, the Westbank settlements are in direct violation of U.S. policy.   

Outside of the Gaza conflict, Israel has refused to cooperate with United States defense interests. Among our investments in the Israeli state, we have contributed $1.3 billion to the development of Israel’s Iron Dome, which is a missile defense system. Yet in 2020, the United States tossed our own $1 billion Iron Dome program because the Israeli government refused to provide key source codes to operate the system. Israel refused to assist the United States in developing a program domestically that we funded the creation of in Israel. Does that sound like the behavior of an ally? If Trump was serious about putting America first, he would withhold aid to pressure Israel to act in our interests, instead of against them. 

President Trump’s meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was bizarre. The president of the United States pulled out and pushed in the chair for a foreign leader, which is on-par with Obama’s feet-on-desk incident in terms of disrespect to the office. Netanyahu also gifted Trump with a gold pager, which almost appeared as a veiled threat, as Mossad used bomb-implanted pagers to target Hamas members last year. However, the most bizarre moment was Trump’s outlandish proposal of U.S. occupation of the Gaza strip. I am not inherently against growth of U.S. territorial land, but involvement in the Gaza strip betrays Trump’s initial promise of ending involvement in the Middle East. Trump has stated intentions of removing the two million occupants of the Gaza strip, which outdoes his deportation efforts here in the United States. He has also stated that U.S. troops would not be involved in the removal, but how else would these people be removed? U.S. occupation of the Gaza strip would make it a key target for attack from adversaries, providing pre-text for yet another war, all at the cost of America and to the benefit of Israel.  

As a Trump voter, I am disappointed in the Middle East foreign policy of the Trump administration. In 2016, Trump promised a world-wide reduction in U.S. military presence. This included Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Germany. Removing U.S. aid and military presence is putting America first. Deporting two million Gazans out of Gaza while the U.S. has its own deportation effort does not put America first. Occupying the strip and engaging in reconstruction while the U.S. has its own crumbling infrastructure does not put America first.  If President Trump does not change course soon, he will have to start using the term ‘Israel First,’ which is exactly what his administration has been prioritizing.