But here at home, the biggest tumult has been snowballing in Trump’s base. Trump won the White House on the promises of sidestepping forever wars and avoiding international adventurism. To this point, the fight in the MAGA-verse has largely been among influencers, with the likes of Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly criticizing the decision to launch another war in the Middle East and others like Ben Shapiro and Mark Levin cheering on the administration. Kent is the first big break in this world from someone who actually influences U.S. government policy.
But as is the case too often in the Trump era, a move that would be praised as principled ran head first into an American First ideology. Kent has a long history of aligning with conspiracy theories; he insisted that the 2020 was stolen, that U.S. officials had a hand in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, and former health chief Anthony Fauci should be tried for murder for his role in Covid. “Republicans just voted to confirm Joe Kent, a conspiracy theorist with white supremacist views, to be in charge of counterterrorism,” Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat, said last year.