Joe Kent resigns as U.S. counterterrorism chief over Iran war
Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said he has resigned effective immediately, breaking with President Trump over the war in Iran and saying he could not support it “in good conscience.”
In a resignation letter addressed to Trump on Tuesday, Kent said Iran posed “no imminent threat” to the United States and accused Israeli officials and members of the American media of pushing the U.S. into war.
Kent wrote that he had decided to step down from his position as head of the National Counterterrorism Center, or NCTC, effective immediately. The center is responsible for analyzing terrorist threats and coordinating counterterrorism intelligence.
In his letter, Kent said Trump had understood during his first term how to use military power “without getting us drawn into never-ending wars,” but said that had changed in 2025. He wrote that Israel and its supporters had carried out a “misinformation campaign” that convinced Trump Iran posed an imminent threat.
“This was a lie and is the same tactic the Israelis used to draw us into the disastrous Iraq war,” Kent wrote.
Kent also described himself as a veteran who deployed 11 times and a Gold Star husband. He said he could not support sending another generation of Americans to fight and die in a war that, in his view, did not serve the American people.
Kent, a former Green Beret and political candidate with connections to right-wing extremists, was confirmed last July on a 52-44 vote, according to AP.
Asked about Kent’s resignation in the Oval Office, Trump said he had read the statement and that “it’s a good thing that he is out” because Kent said Iran was not a threat.
Trump said Iran “was a threat” and argued that if he had not ended the nuclear deal negotiated under former President Barack Obama, “you would have had nuclear holocaust.” He also said that “when somebody is working with us that says they didn’t think Iran was a threat, we don’t want those people.”
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard defended Trump in a statement, saying the president “was overwhelmingly elected by the American people to be our President and Commander in Chief” and was responsible for deciding what constitutes an imminent threat.
“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,” Gabbard said.
Johnson also dismissed Kent’s position, saying he had received the relevant briefings as a member of the Gang of Eight, the bipartisan group of congressional leaders and intelligence committee chairs who receive the most sensitive intelligence briefings.
Johnson said there was “clearly an imminent threat,” that Iran was close to nuclear capability and was building missiles at a pace other countries in the region could not match.
“I don’t know where Joe Kent is getting his information, but he wasn’t in those briefings clearly,” Johnson said. He added that administration officials and military leaders had what he called “exquisite intelligence” and said he was personally convinced that if Trump had waited, there would have been mass American casualties, including service members.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
