Trump’s top counterterrorism official Joe Kent resigns from Iran post, says it “poses no threat to our nation”

President TrumpThe director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Joe Kent, announced his immediate resignation on Tuesday, citing the decision to start a war against Iran when “Iran is not a threat to our nation.”

Kent, who was nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate last year, wrote his resignation letter on X Tuesday morning, saying he “cannot support sending the next generation to fight and die in a war that does nothing for the American people and justifies the cost of American lives.”

“I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran,” Kent wrote. “Iran has never been a threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war because of pressure from Israel and the powerful American delegation.”

He is the highest official in the Trump administration to announce his resignation over the Iran war.

The White House disputed Kent’s assertion that “Iran was not a threat.” Mr. Trump was also asked about Kent’s resignation during a meeting with the Irish prime minister on Tuesday.

“I have read his statement,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office. “I always thought he was a good man. But I always thought he was weak on security, very weak on security.”

“When I read his statement, I realized that it is a good thing that he came out, because he said that Iran was not a threat,” continued Mr. “Iran was a threat – every country saw how much of a threat Iran was.”

White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt, in a statement posted to X, said there were “many false claims” in Kent’s letter to the president, and disputed his assertion that Iran was not a threat to the US.

“This is a false claim that Democrats and others in the liberal media have been repeating,” he said. “As President Trump has made absolutely clear, he had strong and solid evidence that Iran would attack the United States first.”

Kent said that before last June, when the US and Israel attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities, the president “understood that the wars in the Middle East were a trap that robbed America of the precious lives of our allies and destroyed the wealth and prosperity of our nation.” Kent knows the cost of war firsthand – his wife, Shannon, was killed in action in Syria in 2019, leaving behind two boys.

He went on to accuse Israeli officials and others in the media of orchestrating the hoax that led Mr. Trump at war:

At the beginning of this administration, senior Israeli officials and influential members of the American media used a disinformation campaign that completely undermined your America First platform and sowed warmongering sentiments to encourage war with Iran. This echo chamber was used to trick you into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States, and if you struck now, there was a clear path to a quick victory. This was a lie and it is the same tactics the Israelis used to get us into the disastrous Iraq war that cost the nation the lives of thousands of our best men and women.

“You can step back and chart a new path for our nation, or you can let us slide into decline and chaos,” he told the president. “He’s holding the cards.”

Vice President JD Vance, when asked about Kent’s resignation on Wednesday in Michigan, said that no one likes war, and said that he and the president like Kent. Vance said the president is willing to listen to people who disagree.

“That means, no matter what your opinion is, when the president of the United States makes a decision, it’s your job to help make that decision as effective and efficient as possible,” Vance said. “The president said this yesterday, if you are in the team and you cannot help in the implementation of the decisions of his administration, you have the right to take those decisions, so it is a good thing that you resign.”

Kent, a retired Green Beret who served 11 combat tours, was nominated for the counterterrorism role in February 2025 and confirmed in July 2025. it has faced some scrutiny when emails emerged showing that while he was chief of staff to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, he had pressured senior intelligence analysts to redact an investigation into contacts between the Venezuelan government and organized crime groups, Tren de Aragua. In the emails, Kent pressed analysts to align the assessment more closely with Trump administration policies and include references criticizing Biden-era immigration plans.

Kent has endorsed many conspiracy theories and taken controversial positions in the past. He said the COVID vaccine is not a drug, but rather, “experimental gene therapy” and said Anthony Fauci, the former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, should face murder charges. Kent also said that he believes that the 2020 election was stolen from Mr.

In 2022, he ran for Congress in Washington’s 3rd Congressional District and won the GOP primary, unseating Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, but lost in the general election to Marie Gluesenkamp Perez. Kent ran again in 2024, but lost to Gluesenkamp Perez.

Kent was a close friend of Gabbard, who personally approved his congressional requests. In a statement Tuesday that did not mention Kent, Gabbard, who oversees the National Counterterrorism Center, said the president “has a responsibility to determine what the immediate threat is.” He did not express his views on war or say that wisdom led him to a certain conclusion.

“Donald Trump was overwhelmingly elected by the American people to be our President and Commander-in-Chief,” he wrote in X. “As our Commander-in-Chief, he is responsible for determining what is and is not an imminent threat, and whether or not to take action as he deems necessary to protect the safety and security of our troops, the American people and our country.”

“After carefully reviewing all the information before him, President Trump concluded that the Islamic State of Iran posed a threat and acted based on that conclusion,” he said.

An administration official said Kent was not involved in the Iran talks and that Gabbard had been in contact with the White House since Kent’s resignation on Tuesday. The official denied the Fox News report that Gabbard was asked by the White House to fire him and said that if he had been asked to do so, he would have done so.

As director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Kent led US counterterrorism and antinarcotics efforts and was the president’s chief counterterrorism adviser.