President Trump’s director of the Nationwide Counterterrorism Middle, Joe Kent, introduced his instant resignation Tuesday, citing the choice to start a battle towards Iran when “Iran posed no imminent menace 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’t assist sending the following era off to struggle and die in a battle that serves no profit to the American folks nor justifies the price of American lives.”
“I can’t in good conscience assist the continuing battle in Iran,” Kent wrote. “Iran posed no imminent menace to our nation, and it’s clear that we began this battle on account of strain from Israel and its highly effective American foyer.”
He’s the highest-ranking Trump administration official to announce his resignation over the Iran battle.
Kent mentioned that earlier than final June, which is when the U.S. and Israel struck Iran’s nuclear amenities, 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.”
He went on to accuse Israeli officers and a few within the media of orchestrating a deception that led Mr. Trump into the battle:
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 battle with Iran. This echo chamber was used to deceive you into believing that Iran posed an imminent menace to the US, and that ought to you strike now, there was a transparent path to a swift victory. This was a lie and is identical ways the Israelis used to attract us into the disastrous Iraq battle that value the nation the lives of hundreds of our greatest women and men.
“You may reverse course and chart a brand new path for our nation, or you possibly can enable us to slide additional towards decline and chaos,” he instructed the president. “You maintain the playing cards.”
As director of the Nationwide Counterterrorism Middle, Kent led U.S. counterterrorism and counternarcotics efforts and was the president’s principal counterterrorism adviser.
A retired Inexperienced Beret veteran, Kent was confirmed in July 2025, after Mr. Trump nominated him to the submit in February 2025.
The White Home didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
