Top Trump counterterrorism official Joe Kent resigns over Iran, saying it “posed no imminent threat to our nation”

President Trump‘s director of the Nationwide Counterterrorism Middle, Joe Kent, introduced his quick resignation Tuesday, citing the choice to start a conflict towards Iran when “Iran posed no imminent risk to our nation.”

Kent, nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate final yr, posted his resignation letter on X Tuesday morning, saying he “can not assist sending the following technology off to struggle and die in a conflict that serves no profit to the American folks nor justifies the price of American lives.” 

“I can not in good conscience assist the continuing conflict in Iran,” Kent wrote. “Iran posed no imminent risk to our nation, and it’s clear that we began this conflict attributable to strain from Israel and its highly effective American foyer.”

He’s the highest-ranking Trump administration official to announce his resignation over the Iran conflict. 

The White Home took situation with Kent’s assertion that “Iran posed no imminent risk.” Mr. Trump was additionally requested about Kent’s resignation throughout a gathering with the Irish prime minister Tuesday.

“I learn his assertion,” the president advised reporters within the Oval Workplace. “I all the time thought he was a pleasant man. However I all the time thought he was weak on safety, very weak on safety.” 

“Once I learn his assertion, I spotted that it is a good factor that he is out, as a result of he stated Iran was not a risk,” Mr. Trump continued. “Iran was a risk — each nation realized what a risk Iran was.”

White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated in an announcement posted on X that there have been “many false claims” in Kent’s letter to the president, and he or she took situation along with his assertion that Iran didn’t pose an imminent risk to the U.S.  

“This is similar false declare that Democrats and a few within the liberal media have been repeating again and again,” she stated. “As President Trump has clearly and explicitly acknowledged, he had robust and compelling proof that Iran was going to assault america first.”

Kent stated that earlier than final June, which is when the U.S. and Israel struck Iran’s nuclear services, the president “understood that wars within the Center East had been a entice that robbed America of the valuable lives of our patriots and depleted the wealth and prosperity of our nation.” Kent is aware of the price of conflict personally — his spouse, Shannon, was killed by suicide bomber in Syria in 2019, abandoning two boys. 

He went on to accuse Israeli officers and a few within the media of orchestrating a deception that led Mr. Trump into the conflict: 

Early on this administration, high-ranking Israeli officers and influential members of the American media deployed a misinformation marketing campaign that wholly undermined your America First platform and sowed pro-war sentiments to encourage a conflict with Iran. This echo chamber was used to deceive you into believing that Iran posed an imminent risk to america, and that ought to you strike now, there was a transparent path to a swift victory. This was a lie and is similar ways the Israelis used to attract us into the disastrous Iraq conflict that value the nation the lives of hundreds of our greatest women and men.

“You’ll be able to reverse course and chart a brand new path for our nation, or you may enable us to slide additional towards decline and chaos,” he advised the president. “You maintain the playing cards.”

Vice President JD Vance, requested about Kent’s resignation on Wednesday in Michigan, stated no person likes conflict, and he additionally stated he and the president each like Kent. Vance stated the president is keen to hearken to individuals who disagree. 

“That stated, no matter your view is, when the president of america decides, it is your job to assist make that call as efficient and profitable as potential,” Vance stated. “And so the president stated this yesterday, in case you are on the staff and you’ll’t assist implement the choices of his administration, he has the precise to make these selections, then it is a good factor so that you can resign.”

Kent, a retired Inexperienced Beret who served in 11 fight excursions, was nominated to the counterterrorism submit in February 2025 and confirmed in July 2025. His nomination faced some scrutiny when emails emerged exhibiting that whereas he was chief of workers to Director of Nationwide Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, he had pressed senior intelligence analysts to amend an evaluation of hyperlinks between the Venezuelan authorities and the felony gang, Tren de Aragua. Within the emails, Kent pressed the analysts to align the evaluation extra intently with Trump administration insurance policies and to incorporate references that criticized Biden-era immigration applications.

Kent has endorsed a lot of conspiracy theories and brought controversial positions up to now. He is claimed the COVID vaccine wasn’t a vaccine, however reasonably, “an experimental gene remedy” and has additionally stated Anthony Fauci, the previous head of the Nationwide Institute of Allergy and Infectious Ailments, ought to face murder fees. Kent additionally stated he believes the 2020 election was stolen from Mr. Trump and has referred to the Jan. 6, 2021, rioters as “political prisoners.” 

In 2022, he ran for Congress in Washington’s third Congressional District and gained the GOP major, unseating Republican incumbent Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, however he misplaced the final election to Marie Gluesenkamp Perez. Kent ran once more in 2024, however misplaced to Gluesenkamp Perez. 

Kent has been an in depth ally of Gabbard, who personally endorsed his congressional bids. In an announcement Tuesday that didn’t point out Kent, Gabbard, who oversees the Nationwide Counterterrorism Middle, stated that the president “is chargeable for figuring out what’s and isn’t an imminent risk.” She didn’t voice her views on the conflict or say the intelligence led her to any explicit conclusions.

“Donald Trump was overwhelmingly elected by the American folks to be our President and Commander in Chief,” she wrote on X. “As our Commander in Chief, he’s chargeable for figuring out what’s and isn’t an imminent risk, and whether or not or to not take motion he deems crucial to guard the security and safety of our troops, the American folks and our nation.”

“After fastidiously reviewing all the knowledge earlier than him, President Trump concluded that the terrorist Islamist regime in Iran posed an imminent risk and he took motion primarily based on that conclusion,” she stated.

An administration official stated Kent was not concerned on briefings on Iran and that Gabbard has been in contact with the White Home since Kent’s resignation earlier Tuesday. The official denied a Fox News report that Gabbard was requested by the White Home to fireside him and stated that if she had been requested to take action, she would have.  

As director of the Nationwide Counterterrorism Middle, Kent led U.S. counterterrorism and counternarcotics efforts and was the president’s principal counterterrorism adviser. 

Correction: A earlier model of this text misstated the company Dr. Anthony Fauci led.