Joe Kent, the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, became the first senior Trump Administration official to resign in protest over the Iran war on Tuesday, claiming the country posed “no imminent threat to our nation.”
Kent, a veteran and former Republican Congressional candidate, was confirmed by the Senate in July 2025 to lead the agency charged with detecting and analyzing terrorist threats, despite criticisms from Democrats and others that his embrace of conspiracy theories and history of ties to far-right extremists were disqualifying.
“I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,” Kent wrote in his resignation letter, which was posted to X.
Kent said that the war was launched because of a “misinformation campaign” by Israel, which led Trump into striking Iran. He said this war is a decisive shift from Trump’s first term, in which the president “understood that wars in the Middle East were a trap that robbed America of the precious lives of our patriots and depleted the wealth and prosperity of our nation.”
“As a veteran who deployed to combat 11 times and as a Gold Star husband who lost my beloved wife Shannon in a war manufactured by Israel, I 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,’ he continued in the letter. Kent’s first wife, Shannon Smith, was a Navy cryptologist killed by a suicide bomber in 2019 while fighting the Islamic State group in Syria.
Trump labels Kent as “weak on security”
When asked for his reaction to the resignation, President Donald Trump described Kent as “a nice guy” but claimed he “always thought he was weak on security.”
“I didn’t know him well,” he added.
Trump was emphatic in his support of Kent when he nominated him in February 2025.
“Joe will help us keep America safe by eradicating all terrorism, from the jihadists around the World, to the cartels in our backyard,” he said on social media.
The resignation comes amid growing disquiet among prominent figures in Trump’s base over the war, which is entering its third week. Former supporters of the president, such as Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Greene, have emerged as fierce critics. A majority of voters, 54%, disapprove of Trump’s handling of Iran, compared to 41% who approve. There is also evidence that Trump has lost support among young people over the conflict, which was launched on Feb. 28 with a barrage of joint U.S.-Israeli airstrikes.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a post on social media that Kent’s letter contained “many false claims,” and insisted that there had been “strong and compelling evidence that Iran was going to attack the United States first.”
“This evidence was compiled from many sources and factors,” she added, without elaborating.
Leavitt also denied that Trump had been swayed by Israel.
“And finally, the absurd allegation that President Trump made this decision based on the influence of others, even foreign countries, is both insulting and laughable. President Trump has been remarkably consistent and has said for DECADES that Iran can NEVER possess a nuclear weapon,” she added.
Trump himself has also denied any claims that Israel forced or pressured the United States into its war with Iran.
“No, I might have forced their hand. It was my opinion that they [Iran] were going to attack first… If we didn’t do it, they were going to attack first,” the president told reporters on March 3.
Resignation draws renewed attention to Gabbard
Kent’s resignation has drawn particular attention because he served under the Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, herself a longtime critic of military action against Iran.
In one fundraising video, when running for president in 2020, titled “Trump’s Path To War With Iran,” Gabbard went step by step through Trump’s actions in the Middle East and escalating tensions with Iran, and said that “We’ve gotta stop Donald Trump from starting a war with Iran.”
In 2024, after Gabbard left the Democratic Party and endorsed Trump for his second term, she claimed that peace was a major reason for her support: “A vote for Kamala Harris is a vote for Dick Cheney and a vote for war, war and more war,” she said in 2024. “A vote for Donald Trump is a vote to end wars, not start them.”
Gabbard welcomed Kent in his role at the National Counterterrorism Center, citing his “deep, practical understanding of the threats we face” from his 11 military deployments.
Prior to his nomination, Kent ran for Congress to represent Washington’s 3rd district, losing in both 2022 and 2024 to Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, who flipped the seat in 2022.
Kent’s embrace of conspiracy theories and far-right extremists
Kent’s connections to far-right personalities and white nationalists like Nick Fuentes marred his campaigns and resurfaced when he was nominated for the counterterrorism role last year.
“Mr. Kent has embraced discredited anti-government conspiracy theories – including that the FBI and the intelligence community were involved in the January 6, 2021 deadly attack at the U.S. Capitol,” the Southern Poverty Law Center wrote in a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune in June 2025.
“Moreover, his connections with bigoted individuals, far-right violent extremists, and anti-democratic movements and his frequent threats that, once in power, he would target Black activists and treat them as domestic terrorists, makes him a threat to public safety and civil liberties.”