America’s Top Counterterrorism Official Resigns To Protest Iran War, Saying Country Posed No ‘Imminent Threat’

The director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Joe Kent, is resigning to protest the war with Iran, saying that country posted no “imminent threat” to the United States. Mr. Kent is a retired Army special forces soldier who has long opposed intervention in the Middle East following his many deployments abroad. Mr. Kent was nominated for his role last year to serve under Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. She similarly has warned against Middle Eastern conflicts for years, citing the risks of prolonged conflicts. In a statement Tuesday, Mr. Kent said the Iran war is not only unnecessary, but was started as a result of a pressure campaign by the Israeli government. “After much reflection, I have decided to resign from my position as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, effective today,” Mr. Kent said. “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.”In a statement posted to X on Tuesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said it was “both insulting in laughable” to claim that the president had been influenced into starting the war by the press or by Israel.“As President Trump has clearly and explicitly stated, he had strong and compelling evidence that Iran was going to attack the United States first,” Ms. Leavitt said.In a post on X Tuesday, Ms. Gabbard said it was Mr. Trump’s responsibility, not Mr. Kent’s, to determine when military action is needed. “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,” Ms. Gabbard wrote.Before serving as head of the NCTC, Mr. Kent twice ran for Congress with Mr. Trump’s endorsement, though he lost both times. After a brief stint as Ms. Gabbard’s chief of staff, Mr. Trump nominated him for his new role, praising him for having “hunted terrorists and criminals” since he was a teenager. In a letter sent to Mr. Trump directly, however, Mr. Kent told the president he had betrayed his campaign promise to avoid foreign entanglements. “I support the values and the foreign policies that you campaigned on in 2016, 2020, 2024, which you enacted in your first term. Until June of 2025, you understood that the wars in the Middle East were a trap that robbed America of the precious lives of our patriots and depleted the wealth and prosperity of our nation,” Mr. Kent wrote to the president. He went on to claim that Israel and members of the press engaged in “a misinformation campaign that wholly undermined your America First platform and sowed pro-war sentiments to encourage a war with 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 a swift victory,” Mr. Kent continued. “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.”

America’s Top Counterterrorism Official Resigns To Protest Iran War, Saying Country Posed No ‘Imminent Threat’

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