Donald Trump’s top counterterrorism official, Joe Kent, has resigned over the US war in Iran, publicly urging the president to “reverse course.” In a letter posted on X, Kent, who served as the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said that Iran posed “no imminent threat” to the United States and accused the administration of initiating the conflict “due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.” With his departure, Kent became the most high-profile figure within the Trump administration to openly criticise the US-Israeli military action against Iran.
The White House dismissed Kent’s claims, asserting that President Trump had “compelling evidence” that Iran was planning an attack on the United States. US antisemitism monitors also condemned the content of Kent’s letter. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said the accusations “traffic in old-age antisemitic tropes,” noting, “So it’s no surprise that he would blame Israel and the media for pushing the President into war against the Iranian regime.” Ilan Goldenberg, a senior official at the liberal pro-Israel advocacy group J Street, described Kent’s letter as “ugly stuff that plays on the worst antisemitic tropes.” The pro-Israel lobbying group Aipac reposted the ADL statement on X but did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In his letter, Kent alleged that “high-ranking Israeli officials” and influential US journalists had sown “misinformation” that led the president to undermine his “America First” platform. “This echo chamber was used to deceive you into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States,” he wrote. “This was a lie.” Kent, 45, a US special forces and CIA veteran whose wife, Navy cryptologic technician Shannon Kent, was killed in a suicide bombing in Syria in 2019, cited his military service and personal loss as part of his reasoning. He wrote that he “cannot support sending the next generation off to fight and die in a war that serves no benefit to the American people nor justifies the cost of American lives.” Kent deployed 11 times overseas with the US military, including with the Army’s special forces in Iraq, and later became a paramilitary officer at the CIA before leaving government service following his wife’s death.
Kent, a long-time Trump supporter who twice ran unsuccessfully for Congress, was nominated early in Trump’s administration and narrowly confirmed to his post. During his confirmation hearings, he refused to renounce claims that federal agents had fomented the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot or that Trump had lost the 2020 election. Democrats had also criticised Kent for hiring a member of the far-right Proud Boys as a consultant to his 2022 congressional campaign. At the National Counterterrorism Center, Kent reported to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and oversaw analysis and detection of potential terrorist threats globally.
Following Kent’s resignation, Gabbard defended Trump’s decision to take military action in Iran, posting on X that the president, as commander-in-chief, was responsible for determining what constituted an imminent threat. She wrote, “After carefully reviewing all the information before him, President Trump concluded that the terrorist Islamist regime in Iran posed an imminent threat and he took action based on that conclusion,” adding that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence provided the president “with the best information available to inform his decisions.”
President Trump, speaking from the Oval Office on Tuesday, described Kent as a “nice guy” but “weak on security,” adding that Kent’s resignation letter had made him realize “it was a good thing that he’s out.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also dismissed Kent’s claims, saying, “Kent’s suggestion that Trump made the decision based on the influence of others, even foreign countries, is both insulting and laughable. As President Trump has clearly and explicitly stated, he had strong and compelling evidence that Iran was going to attack the United States first.”
Political reactions to Kent’s resignation were divided. Former Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell posted on X, “Isolationists and anti-Semites have no place in either party, and certainly do not deserve places of trust in our government.” Meanwhile, former Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a one-time Trump supporter, praised Kent, calling him an American hero and warning, “They are going to lie about Joe Kent and try to discredit him. Do not believe the lies!” Kent’s departure comes amid a series of senior resignations during Trump’s second term, including Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement director Margaret Ryan and Kennedy Center head Richard Grenell, though turnover has been far lower than during Trump’s previous White House tenure between 2017 and 2021.