Latest / The President's Daily Brief / November 4th, 2026: Trump Announces Major Shift in America's Military Support for Israel & NATO Plans Russian Strikes

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November 4th, 2026: Trump Announces Major Shift in America's Military Support for Israel & NATO Plans Russian Strikes · The President's Daily Brief

0:12
It's Wednesday,
0:13
the 4th of November.
0:14
Welcome to the President's Daily Brief.
0:16
I'm Mike Baker,
0:17
your eyes and ears on the world stage.
0:20
Alright,
0:21
let's get briefed.
0:22
First up,
0:23
President Trump announces plans to end
0:26
nearly $4 billion in annual US aid to Israel.
0:31
That's under a new agreement that he says
0:32
was reached months ago with Prime Minister Netanyahu.
0:35
I'll have the details.
0:37
Later in the show,
0:38
NATO is developing plans
0:40
to strike deep inside Russian territory in the event of a war with Moscow,
0:45
marking a significant shift
0:47
in the alliance's military strategy.
0:49
Plus,
0:50
the Kremlin confirms that Russia,
0:52
Ukraine,
0:52
and the US
0:53
will head to the negotiating table next week for
0:56
a new round of peace talks in Abu Dhabi.
0:59
And in today's back of the brief,
1:00
Hungary prepares to expose tens of thousands of communist era informants.
1:06
Potentially revealing which friends,
1:08
neighbors,
1:09
and family members were secretly spying for the government.
1:13
But first,
1:13
today's PDB spotlight.
1:16
President Trump has announced plans to end nearly $4
1:19
billion in annual American military assistance to Israel,
1:22
potentially bringing an end to a decades-long financial arrangement
1:27
that has helped underpin the relationship between Washington and Jerusalem.
1:31
The president says he reached an agreement
1:32
with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu months ago
1:35
and noted that the US will stop providing the money
1:38
at the end of this year.
1:39
Instead,
1:40
going forward,
1:41
Israel would purchase American weapons using its own funds.
1:45
Trump revealed the arrangement Tuesday morning during an interview with Fox News.
1:49
He said Netanyahu actually proposed ending the assistance,
1:52
arguing that Israel had become economically successful enough
1:56
to pay for its own defense.
1:58
According to Trump,
1:59
quote,
1:59
They've become a very successful country.
2:02
They don't need it,
2:03
end quote.
2:04
The president also made clear that domestic politics played a role.
2:08
He argued that annual assistance has become an easy target for Democrats.
2:12
Who question why American taxpayers are providing billions
2:15
of dollars to a wealthy foreign country.
2:18
But the announcement
2:19
raises some immediate questions.
2:21
For one thing,
2:22
the existing American military assistance agreement
2:25
isn't scheduled to expire until September 2028.
2:29
That agreement was negotiated under President Barack Obama back in 2016.
2:34
It committed the US to providing Israel with $38 billion over 10 years
2:39
subject to congressional approval.
2:42
That works out to approximately $3.8 billion annually,
2:46
including $3.3 billion in military financing and another $500 million
2:51
for missile defense programs.
2:53
And
2:53
this arrangement is only the latest chapter in a financial
2:56
relationship that of course stretches back more than seven decades.
3:00
When Israel was established in 1948,
3:03
the US was not immediately its principal military supplier.
3:07
Washington provided economic assistance,
3:09
including a $100 million export-import bank loan back in 1949,
3:14
while France initially supplied much of Israel's advanced weaponry.
3:19
And that began to change during the 1960s as
3:22
Washington approved increasingly sophisticated military equipment for Israel,
3:26
including Hawk anti-aircraft missiles
3:28
and eventually F-4 Phantom fighter jets.
3:31
But the real turning point came in 1973 during the Yom Kippur War.
3:37
After Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack against Israel.
3:40
President Richard Nixon
3:42
authorized an emergency American military resupply operation.
3:46
Congress subsequently approved $2.2 billion in
3:49
emergency military assistance and financing,
3:52
and from that point forward,
3:54
large scale American military support became a central feature
3:57
of the relationship.
3:59
Over the following decades,
4:01
successive administrations expanded the arrangement,
4:03
eventually establishing multi-year agreements that provided Israel
4:07
with predictable funding for major weapons purchases.
4:11
According to the Congressional Research Service,
4:13
collectively over the years,
4:15
Israel has received approximately $174 billion
4:20
in American assistance through fiscal year 2025
4:24
without
4:24
adjusting for inflation.
4:26
But while Israel has remained heavily dependent on American military technology,
4:30
its economy has also grown considerably,
4:33
and Netanyahu has previously discussed gradually ending
4:36
the country's reliance on US financial assistance.
4:39
In January of this year,
4:41
he told The Economist that Israel wanted to phase
4:44
out American military aid over the next 10 years.
4:47
Trump's announcement would accelerate that timetable.
4:50
Now,
4:51
there's an important distinction here.
4:52
Ending military grants does not mean ending American military support for Israel.
4:58
Trump says Washington will continue selling advanced weapons to Israel
5:02
and would still help its ally if necessary.
5:05
The proposed arrangement could also involve
5:07
expanded cooperation on military technology,
5:10
weapons manufacturing,
5:11
and joint defense projects.
5:13
In other words,
5:14
Israel will increasingly become a paying customer
5:17
rather than a recipient of American financial assistance,
5:21
and there's an American economic component to consider.
5:24
Much of the current assistance
5:25
must be spent purchasing American-made military equipment.
5:29
That means billions of dollars flow through
5:31
Israel and back into American defense companies,
5:34
supporting weapons manufacturers and their suppliers.
5:38
There's also the question of how Trump intends to terminate the arrangement.
5:42
The current 10-year agreement is not a binding treaty,
5:45
but Congress controls federal appropriations,
5:48
and lawmakers have already established a framework for assistance through 2028.
5:53
The White House has not explained
5:55
how the administration intends to end that funding nearly two years early,
5:59
and as of Tuesday,
6:01
Netanyahu's office had not publicly confirmed the details.
6:05
The announcement has already drawn criticism from Israeli opposition figures.
6:09
Former military chief Gidi Eizenkott
6:12
questioned why Israel's defense establishment appeared to be
6:14
learning about the change through the media,
6:17
and opposition leader,
6:18
Yer Gan,
6:19
warned that ending American assistance could
6:21
place financial pressure on Israeli taxpayers.
6:25
For Netanyahu,
6:26
reducing dependence on American grants could
6:29
provide Israel with greater financial autonomy,
6:32
although the country would still rely heavily on American aircraft,
6:35
weapons systems,
6:36
replacement parts,
6:37
and military cooperation.
6:39
So the larger question isn't whether the US
6:41
and Israel are ending their security partnership.
6:44
Neither leader has suggested anything of the sort.
6:47
It's whether the two countries
6:49
are preparing to fundamentally change how that partnership is financed
6:53
and what responsibilities
6:54
each government will assume going forward.
6:57
Trump says the decision has already been made,
7:00
but with the existing aid agreement running through 2028.
7:03
Netanyahu's government still to publicly explain its position
7:07
and Congress holding authority over the money,
7:09
well,
7:10
several major questions do remain unanswered.
7:13
All right.
7:14
Coming up next,
7:15
NATO develops plans to strike deep inside Russia
7:18
in the event of a major future conflict,
7:21
while Washington and the Kremlin
7:23
reportedly agreed to new peace talks,
7:25
and supposedly Ukraine will be included at the table.
7:29
I'll be right back.
7:31
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8:35
NATO is developing new military plans that could
8:39
see the alliance launch strikes deep inside Russian territory
8:43
in the event of a war with Russia.
8:45
According to the Wall Street Journal,
8:46
Military commanders are rethinking how NATO would respond to a Russian invasion,
8:51
moving beyond simply defending allied territory
8:54
to potentially attacking the military
8:56
infrastructure supporting a Russian offensive.
8:59
That could mean striking Russian airfields,
9:01
command centers,
9:02
ammunition depots,
9:03
supply networks,
9:04
and
9:04
other major military installations hundreds of miles beyond the front lines.
9:09
The objective would be to cripple Russia's
9:11
ability to sustain an invasion rather than
9:14
simply fighting Russian troops as they
9:16
cross into NATO territory.
9:19
The strategy is being developed under US Air Force General Alexis Grinkovich,
9:24
NATO's Supreme Allied Commander for Europe.
9:26
In June,
9:27
he hosted the alliance's first deep strike symposium in Belgium,
9:31
bringing together military commanders,
9:33
defense officials,
9:34
and weapons manufacturers
9:36
to examine how long-range precision strikes could be incorporated
9:40
into NATO's defense plans.
9:42
The approach is built around what Grinkovich calls NATO's theory of victory,
9:46
which consists of three stages block,
9:49
blunt,
9:50
and break.
9:51
First,
9:52
NATO would attempt to block Russian forces
9:54
from gaining control of allied territory.
9:56
Next,
9:56
it would blunt the attack,
9:58
using coordinated military operations to stop the enemy's advance.
10:02
Finally,
10:03
NATO would seek to break
10:05
the military system supporting the invasion,
10:07
targeting the command networks and supply lines and reinforcements
10:11
that would allow Russian forces to continue fighting.
10:14
It's a strategy heavily influenced by what
10:16
military planners have been watching in Ukraine.
10:20
For years,
10:20
Ukrainian forces have struggled to defend their cities and infrastructure
10:24
against waves of Russian missiles and drones.
10:27
Intercepting those weapons is expensive,
10:29
and even the most advanced air defenses
10:31
can become overwhelmed by sustained attacks.
10:34
Ukraine has increasingly responded by taking the fight to Russia,
10:38
launching long-range strikes against airfields,
10:40
ammunition depots,
10:41
oil facilities,
10:42
and other targets supporting Moscow's war effort.
10:46
NATO planners are drawing a lesson from those operations.
10:49
Rather than relying entirely on defensive systems to intercept incoming attacks,
10:54
it may be more effective to strike the
10:56
infrastructure enabling those attacks in the first place.
11:00
But putting that strategy into practice presents some serious challenges.
11:04
For one thing,
11:05
NATO would need substantially larger
11:07
stockpiles of long-range precision weapons.
11:10
The US already possesses systems such as Tomahawk cruise missiles and attacks.
11:15
While European countries are developing and
11:17
purchasing additional long range capabilities,
11:19
but manufacturing enough weapons to sustain a major conflict
11:24
could take years.
11:25
There's also the question of whether NATO's political leaders
11:28
would authorize strikes against targets deep inside Russia,
11:31
even if
11:32
Moscow attacked the alliance first.
11:35
Russia has repeatedly warned that attacks on its territory
11:39
could trigger a major escalation,
11:40
potentially including nuclear retaliation.
11:43
And while NATO's plans focus on conventional military operations,
11:47
commanders can't entirely eliminate the risk of
11:50
a confrontation spiraling beyond their control.
11:54
And that creates a difficult balancing act.
11:57
NATO wants Moscow to believe that any attack against the alliance
12:00
would result in devastating consequences for Russia's military,
12:04
but maintaining that deterrent
12:07
requires both the weapons to carry out those threats
12:10
and the political willingness
12:12
to use them.
12:14
OK.
12:14
Staying with Russia,
12:16
the Kremlin has confirmed that Moscow will
12:18
return to the negotiating table next week
12:20
for a new round of peace talks with both Ukraine and the US.
12:24
The discussions are scheduled for November 10th and 11th in Abu Dhabi,
12:28
marking the resumption of American-mediated negotiations
12:32
after months of diplomatic uncertainty.
12:35
But even as the two sides prepare to meet,
12:37
Russia has launched another massive
12:39
assault against Ukraine's energy infrastructure,
12:42
raising questions,
12:43
of course,
12:43
about Moscow's willingness
12:45
to bring the fighting to an end.
12:47
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed the talks on Tuesday,
12:50
announcing that Vladimir Medinsky,
12:52
a senior aide to President Putin,
12:55
will lead the Russian delegation.
12:57
The American team is expected to include US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner,
13:01
who've been,
13:01
of course,
13:02
leading Washington's efforts to negotiate a settlement.
13:05
Ukrainian representatives will also attend.
13:08
The meetings will be the first
13:10
American-mediated peace negotiations since February,
13:13
when diplomatic efforts were interrupted
13:15
by the outbreak of the war with Iran.
13:17
According to Reuters,
13:18
Putin agreed to resume negotiations following discussions with
13:22
Witkoff in Saint Petersburg two weeks ago.
13:25
The agenda is expected to cover
13:28
several major issues including reducing hostilities,
13:31
post-war security guarantees,
13:33
humanitarian measures,
13:35
and the broader terms of a potential peace agreement.
13:38
American officials are also consulting with European
13:40
allies and NATO representatives about just what security
13:44
arrangements might look like once the fighting ends
13:47
and how Ukraine's reconstruction could be supported.
13:50
Ukrainian President Zelensky has outlined several priorities for the talks.
13:54
Among them is a halt to attacks against Ukrainian energy infrastructure,
13:59
restoring commercial shipping through the Black Sea,
14:01
and expanding prisoner exchanges.
14:04
Kiev also wants to discussions about security guarantees
14:07
that would prevent Russia from launching another
14:09
invasion after an agreement is reached,
14:12
but the renewed diplomatic effort comes against
14:14
the backdrop of another major Russian bombardment.
14:18
Overnight Monday into Tuesday,
14:19
Russian forces launched an enormous missile and drone attack against Ukraine
14:24
because,
14:24
frankly,
14:25
nothing demonstrates a willingness to negotiate peace
14:28
like an enormous missile and drone attack.
14:31
According to Ukrainian officials,
14:32
the assault involved 289 drones,
14:35
17 ballistic missiles,
14:36
and 59 cruise missiles,
14:38
a total of 365 munitions launched against targets across the country.
14:43
The attacks damaged electricity infrastructure in multiple regions,
14:47
forcing emergency blackouts and leaving large
14:49
numbers of Ukrainians without reliable power.
14:52
Ukraine's largest private energy producer,
14:54
Ditech,
14:55
reported that 3 of its 5 thermal power plants
14:58
had been knocked offline.
15:00
Other strikes damaged hospitals and civilian buildings,
15:03
with dozens of people reported injured.
15:06
Russia's Defense Ministry acknowledged conducting the operation,
15:09
claiming its forces struck 4 power plants,
15:11
2 electrical substations,
15:13
and port infrastructure along the Danube River.
15:16
Moscow insisted the facilities
15:18
were supporting Ukrainian military factories
15:20
and armed forces.
15:22
Reuters was
15:23
unable to independently verify those claims.
15:27
Meanwhile,
15:27
Ukraine has continued conducting strikes of its own.
15:30
Ukrainian forces reportedly attacked a major Russian oil refinery in Yaroslavl,
15:35
part of Kiev's ongoing campaign
15:37
against Russia's energy sector and the
15:40
infrastructure supporting its war effort.
15:42
And despite the agreement to resume negotiations,
15:45
the fundamental disagreements,
15:47
of course,
15:47
between Moscow and Kiev remain unresolved.
15:50
Russia continues to demand territorial concessions,
15:53
including
15:54
territory that it doesn't control,
15:57
while Kiev refuses to surrender territory that it still controls.
16:01
Ukraine is also demanding credible security guarantees,
16:04
something that Moscow has repeatedly resisted,
16:07
and Putin has shown little willingness
16:10
to accept an unconditional ceasefire
16:12
before the broader terms of a settlement are negotiated.
16:16
For Washington,
16:16
the challenge is determining
16:18
Whether Moscow's return to the negotiating
16:20
table represents a genuine willingness to compromise
16:24
or
16:24
merely another opportunity for Russia to buy time
16:28
while continuing its military campaign.
16:30
Well,
16:30
here's a hint,
16:31
it might be the latter.
16:33
For now,
16:34
the Kremlin has agreed to send its negotiators to Abu Dhabi,
16:37
but it has made no commitment
16:39
to stop its near daily attacks on Ukraine.
16:44
OK.
16:44
Coming up in the back of the brief,
16:46
Hungary prepares to reveal the identities of tens of
16:49
thousands of people who secretly informed on their fellow citizens
16:53
during their communist rule.
16:55
More on that
16:56
when we come back.
16:59
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In today's back of the brief,
19:25
the nation of Hungary is about to expose tens of thousands of people
19:29
who secretly informed on their fellow citizens during Hungary's communist rule.
19:34
The country's new government is opening its secret police archives,
19:38
potentially revealing betrayals
19:40
that have remained hidden for decades,
19:42
and for some Hungarians,
19:44
the disclosures could mean discovering that a
19:46
trusted friend or neighbor or even family member
19:49
was secretly working for the communist authorities.
19:52
Beginning today,
19:53
the government plans to release a searchable
19:55
database containing between 50,000 and 60,000 names
19:59
connected to Hungary's communist era
20:02
security services.
20:03
The records span decades of surveillance
20:06
under the Soviet-backed regime that ruled the country until 1989.
20:10
During that period,
20:11
Hungary's secret police operated an extensive network of
20:15
informants who monitored virtually every corner of society.
20:19
Political dissidents,
20:20
religious leaders,
20:21
artists,
20:21
musicians,
20:22
and ordinary citizens all came under scrutiny.
20:25
Some informants cooperated willingly,
20:27
receiving privileges or professional opportunities
20:30
in exchange for information.
20:31
Others were blackmailed,
20:33
threatened,
20:34
or pressured into reporting on people they knew.
20:37
The decision to release the files comes
20:39
from Prime Minister Peter Magyar's government.
20:41
Magyar defeated longtime leader
20:43
Viktor Orban earlier this year,
20:46
and the timing carries particular historical significance.
20:49
November 4th marks exactly 70 years since Soviet troops invaded Hungary in 1956,
20:56
crushing an anti-communist uprising
20:58
and ushering in another period of political repression.
21:01
There's also an interesting political twist.
21:04
On Tuesday,
21:04
Orban revealed that communist secret police
21:07
attempted to recruit him as an informant
21:09
during his military service in 1982.
21:12
He says he refused
21:14
and that authorities subsequently placed him
21:16
and other opposition activists under surveillance.
21:19
But perhaps the most unsettling revelations
21:21
will involve ordinary families.
21:23
The Guardian describes the experience of journalist Alexander Faludi,
21:27
whose
21:28
grandfather was imprisoned by Hungary's communist regime.
21:31
While examining the archives,
21:33
Faludi discovered that a woman who had befriended his grandmother in London
21:37
had secretly reported on his family.
21:39
But further investigations suggested the woman may have been pressured
21:43
into cooperating because her elderly parents remained in Hungary.
21:47
Historians warn that the surviving records are incomplete,
21:50
and appearing in the files doesn't
21:52
necessarily mean that someone willingly corroborated.
21:56
Some individuals may have been coerced while
21:58
others were just approached for recruitment.
22:00
Nevertheless,
22:01
the disclosures could reopen painful questions about loyalty,
22:05
betrayal,
22:06
and the compromises the people made
22:08
under communist rule.
22:10
One survivor of Hungary's forced labor camps told the Guardian,
22:13
quote,
22:13
People would learn
22:14
that there were traitors in every family.
22:17
End quote.
22:18
70 years after Soviet tanks rolled into Budapest,
22:21
Hungary is preparing to uncover secrets that
22:24
some families may have preferred to leave buried.
22:28
And that,
22:28
my friends,
22:29
is the president's Daily Brief
22:31
for Wednesday,
22:31
the 4th of November.
22:33
If you have any questions or comments,
22:34
please reach out to me at PDB@hefirsttv.com.
22:38
And if you're jonesing for an ad-free PDB experience,
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Just become a premium member
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by visiting PDBpremium.com.
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I'm Mike Baker,
22:50
and I'll be back later today
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with the PDB afternoon bulletin.
22:54
Until then,
22:55
stay informed,
22:56
stay safe.
22:57
Stay cool.