A new, highly contentious $2.8 billion arms deal prepared by the Trump administration would send tens of thousands of powerful 2,000-pound bombs to Israel, with U.S. taxpayers on the hook for the full cost, The Washington Post has reported, citing an anonymous senior U.S. official familiar with the military planning. If finalized, the transfer would mark the largest single shipment of this destructive munition from the United States to Israel in modern history.
Details of the package outline that it includes 40,000 general-purpose 2,000-pound bombs — specifically the MK-84 and BLU-117 variants — alongside an additional 20,000 I-2000 Penetrator warheads. Classified as one of the most devastating conventional armaments in Western military stockpiles, the MK-84 is engineered to penetrate thick concrete and reinforced metal, create massive impact craters, and spray lethal shrapnel across hundreds of meters from its detonation site. This wide destructive radius puts civilian populations at extreme risk when deployed in populated areas.
The proposed sale has already been shared informally with key congressional committees, creating a awkward political bind for Democratic lawmakers. Tensions between the U.S. Democratic caucus and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have reached a fever pitch in recent months, as growing frustration over Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has strained the long-standing U.S.-Israel bilateral relationship.
When pressed by reporters about widespread concerns over the humanitarian risks posed by the transfer, a senior Trump administration official declined to comment on the pending deal, noting only that all international arms sales follow standard procedural protocols. The Israeli Embassy in Washington also did not respond to repeated requests for comment from The Washington Post.
Criticism of the proposed transfer spread rapidly across social media, with high-profile journalists and political commentators quickly condemning the deal. Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson used his platform on X to argue that the sale is unprecedented and unjustified. “There is no precedent for what the Trump administration is doing. Nor is there any justification,” Carlson wrote. He added that Israel is not fighting a large-scale conventional war that requires such heavy armaments: it is engaged in limited skirmishes with guerrilla forces in Lebanon and a brutal offensive against the largely unarmed civilian population of Gaza, neither of which necessitates the deployment of 2,000-pound bombs.
Investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald went further, framing the deal as a continuation of former President Trump’s political obligations to Miriam Adelson, an Israeli-born American billionaire and one of the most prominent pro-Israel donors in U.S. politics. “In case you’re wondering when Trump’s debt to Miriam Adelson and her Israeli cabal will finally be paid off, the answer is: never. The debt is eternal and limitless,” Greenwald posted on X. He added that political obligations are just one factor behind Trump’s unwavering alignment with Israeli policy, separate from the former president’s own personal and political motivations for his staunch support.
The $2.8 billion package outpaces all previous U.S. arms sales to Israel in recent years, including a $2.04 billion sale approved in 2025 that skipped the standard congressional review process. Data compiled from open-source reporting confirms that Israeli forces have already deployed 2,000-pound bombs hundreds of times during their ongoing military campaign in the besieged Gaza Strip and cross-border strikes in Lebanon, resulting in catastrophic civilian casualties.
Multiple United Nations bodies, including the UN Commission of Inquiry, alongside leading international and Israeli human rights organizations, have officially concluded that Israeli authorities have committed acts of genocide in the Gaza Strip. Since the launch of Israel’s military offensive on the enclave in October 2023, more than 73,000 people have been killed in Gaza, the vast majority of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.