Top counterterrorism official resigns over Iran war

WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent resigned Tuesday, citing his opposition to the war with Iran and claimed that the country posed no imminent threat to the United States.

In a letter posted on X, Kent wrote that he could not support the war and urged President Donald Trump to end it. Kent also wrote, “it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”

The letter quickly drew rebuke from President Trump in the Oval Office, shortly after the letter was made public.

“When I read his statement, I realized that it’s a good thing that he’s out, because he said that Iran was not a threat? Iran was a threat. Every country realized what a threat Iran was. The question is whether or not they wanted to do something about it,” Trump said.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on X that Kent’s statement contained “many false claims.”

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) also disputed Kent’s statements during a press briefing on Wednesday.

“I don’t know where Joe Kent is getting his information, but he wasn’t in those briefings, clearly, because the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War and everyone ... understood that this was a serious moment for us,” said the speaker. “Had the president waited, I am personally convinced that we would have mass casualties of Americans.”

Georgetown University history professor Michael Kazin said the departure reflects divisions within the administration and was not entirely surprising given known tensions within Trump’s coalition.

“It shows a split in Trump’s higher echelons of his administration,” Kazin said. “We’ve known that people like Tucker Carlson, who Kent evidently is good friends with, has opposed to this. We know there’s been battles between various talk show hosts and podcasters and others in some of the administration. So this is really not a surprise.”

Kazin said the more notable aspect was the public nature of the exit.

“It’s a surprise that he publicly resigned and made a statement of that. But it shows how little preparation really the president made in going to war — preparation for the American public,” he said.

Congressional reaction to Kent’s resignation has been mixed. Some members on the left said Kent was correct about the Iran war. Others on both sides of the aisle said his letter contained antisemitic tropes.