Reported $2.8 Billion Bomb Sale to Israel Would Be Financed by U.S. Program

As the conflict with Iran continues, the U.S. is preparing a major step to reinforce one of its key regional partners: supplying Israel with bombs.

The Washington Post reports that the Trump administration is preparing a $2.8 billion sale of bombs to Israel, financed through a U.S. government program that would allow the munitions to be released for sale while also covering the cost, effectively using American taxpayer funds to support Israel’s rearmament.

Traditional arms deals often involve agreements that allow a country to purchase U.S. weapons, meaning at least some proceeds flow into the American economy. According to the Post, however, the Trump administration is using a special program called Foreign Military Financing, through which the U.S. would provide Israel with the funds to buy the weapons from its own coffers.

Polling in 2024 found that 52 percent of Americans said the U.S. government should stop sending weapons to Israel. A New York Times/Siena College poll released late last year also found that a majority of Americans oppose additional economic or military aid to Israel. In June, a Quinnipiac poll found that nearly half of U.S. voters believe America is too supportive of Israel overall.

The Post reports that congressional committees have been notified of the planned sale — or, by some accounts, the gift. Past arms deals under the Trump administration have moved outside traditional sales procedures, leaving it unclear whether elected officials will have a meaningful opportunity to challenge the plan. “All foreign arms sales are moving through the appropriate process. We do not comment on pending sales,” a senior administration official told the Post.

The weapons at the center of the reported deal are highly destructive. According to the Post, the package would include 40,000 bombs weighing 2,000 pounds or more, many equipped with penetrator warheads designed to create large craters and send deadly shrapnel hundreds of yards through the air. Most of the bombs are MK-84 or BLU-117 models, among the U.S. military’s largest unguided “dumb” bombs, though they can be converted into “smart” guided munitions. The 2,000-pound MK-84s have significant destructive power, and Israel has already faced criticism for using them in densely populated civilian areas during its campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) has claimed that an MK-84 bomb was used to kill Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah in 2024. It was also the only weapon type that Joe Biden prohibited from being sold to Israel during the war in Gaza, a restriction that Trump reversed immediately after retaking office.

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The U.S. has already expended a large amount of materiel in its war with Iran and has also drawn down key strategic reserves of missiles and interceptor rockets on Israel’s behalf during that country’s long campaign in Gaza. While the MK-84s are not specialized munitions like the interceptors and long-range missiles the U.S. has used heavily in Iran, they remain devastating weapons capable of causing widespread damage in populated areas.

Israel, it appears, is not likely to run out of firepower any time soon.

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