A senior US intelligence official appointed by President Donald Trump abruptly introduced he’s stepping down from his publish on Tuesday, citing misgivings concerning the administration’s war with Iran.
“After much reflection, I have decided to resign from my position as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, effective today,” Joe Kent wrote in a post on X.
“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 added within the resignation letter he hooked up to the publish.
Kent was a staunch supporter of Trump and the MAGA motion, and his resignation marks the primary high-profile departure of the president’s second time period over a serious coverage concern. Some lawmakers and consultants have raised doubts over the intelligence the president used to justify the war, and the departure of a key intelligence official will enhance scrutiny of the administration’s case.
A senior US official confirmed that Kent was resigning.
Trump stated Tuesday that it’s a “good thing” Kent resigned over his objections to the war with Iran, deriding him as “very weak on security.”
“When somebody is working with us that says they didn’t think Iran was a threat, we don’t want those people,” Trump stated from the Oval Office. “They’re not smart people, or they’re not savvy people.”
The Office of Director of National Intelligence didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
After the preliminary wave of strikes towards Iran, Trump cited an “imminent threat” to the US, and administration officers stated the US acted in response to potential preemptive assaults by Iran on forces within the area — claims that had been contradicted in Pentagon briefings to Capitol Hill, the place protection officers stated Iran was not planning to assault until struck first.
Kent blamed Israeli officers and the media for deceptive Trump concerning the menace posed by Iran.
“This echo chamber was used to deceive you into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States, and that should you strike now, there was a clear path to victory,” he wrote in his resignation letter. “This was a lie and is the same tactic the Israelis used to draw us into the disastrous Iraq war that cost our nation the lives of thousands of our best men and women. We cannot make this mistake again.”
The Iran war and the shut US alliance with Israel have divided the MAGA movement. Some outstanding figures within the motion, together with Megyn Kelly and Tucker Carlson, have been important of the Trump administration on each counts. The important camp additionally contains influential podcasting voices comparable to Joe Rogan, Theo Von and Tim Dillon, who had been credited with serving to gas Trump’s 2024 victory however have since soured on the president over international coverage and different points.
But polls present that the majority rank-and-file Republicans again the war effort. An NBC News poll taken after the battle began discovered 77% of Republicans — and 90% of self-described MAGA Republicans — supported the strikes on Iran. The same survey discovered that 69% of Republicans stated their sympathies lay extra with Israelis than with Palestinians, although it additionally discovered that the share of Republicans that view Israel positively was at 54% — down from 63% in 2023.
The prime Democrat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Mark Warner, issued a press release important of Kent however supportive of the reasoning behind his resignation.
“I strongly disagree with many of the positions he has espoused over the years, particularly those that risk politicizing our intelligence community,” Warner stated. “But on this point, he is right: there was no credible evidence of an imminent threat from Iran that would justify rushing the United States into another war of choice in the Middle East.”
Kent is leaving a vital position at a corporation tasked with monitoring intelligence related to long-existing terrorist organizations within the Middle East in addition to drug cartels and worldwide gangs. Before taking over the place he served as a prime aide to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
Kent earned his prime place partially by being a vocal proponent of Trump’s 2020 election conspiracies. But Kent’s penchant for conspiracies led to clashes with different administration officers since taking workplace.
Last yr Kent drew a rebuke from FBI Director Kash Patel and different Justice Department officers after he sought to entry FBI programs to research the Charlie Kirk assassination, pursuing claims that there might have been international involvement within the killing, in line with individuals briefed on the discussions.
Patel and different officers raised issues that accessing FBI proof might harm the prosecution of Tyler Robinson, the Utah man charged within the Kirk assassination, these briefed stated.
Kent has intensive expertise in counterterrorism and the army — he served 11 fight excursions over a 20-year profession within the Army earlier than retiring to develop into a CIA officer — and has private expertise as a Gold Star partner. His first spouse, Shannon, was killed in a 2019 suicide bombing in Syria whereas serving as a Navy cryptologist.
Kent ran an unsuccessful marketing campaign for Congress in 2022, throughout which previous associations with far-right figures grew to become a key concern.
Kent repeatedly needed to disavow previous interactions with Nazi sympathizer Greyson Arnold and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes as NCS’s KFile has beforehand reported. Kent stated on the time he was unfamiliar with Fuentes and later stated he didn’t need Fuentes’ endorsement.
During Kent’s affirmation listening to, he confronted criticism from Democratic lawmakers who pointed to these previous associations.
Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat, described him on the time as a “conspiracy theorist who espouses white supremacist views and is patently unqualified for this important role in just about every way imaginable.” He was confirmed in a 52-44 vote within the Senate.
Trump’s rationale for attacking the Iranian regime has whipsawed from defending the demonstrators who protested within the streets of Iran in January to defending the US towards the danger of Iran constructing nuclear and long-range weapons and eliminating a regime that’s backed terrorist teams’ killing Americans for many years. He’s known as for the Iranian individuals to take management of their nation at the same time as prime officers say the war isn’t about regime change.
This story has been up to date with further reporting.