‘Pressure From Israel’: Trump’s Counterterrorism Director Resigns Over Iran War
“Early in this administration, high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media deployed a misinformation campaign that wholly undermined your America First platform and sowed pro-war sentiments to encourage a war with Iran.”
Joe Kent resigned as the director of the National Counterterrorism Center today over President Donald Trump’s strikes on Iran.
“I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran,” Kent wrote on X. “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.”
After much reflection, I have decided to resign from my position as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, effective today.
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… pic.twitter.com/prtu86DpEr
— Joe Kent (@joekent16jan19) March 17, 2026
Kent wrote:
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 2025, you understood that the wars in the Middle East were a trap that robbed America of precious lives of our patriots and depleted the wealth and prosperity of our nation.
In your first administration, you understood better than any moderdn President how to decisively apply military power without getting us drawn into never-ending wars. You demonstrated this by killing Qasam Solamani and by defeating ISIS.
This part caused my jaw to drop wide open:
Early in this administration, high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media deployed 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. 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.
Well, I read his statement. I always thought it was a nice guy, but I always thought he was weak on security, very weak on security. I didn’t know him well, but I thought he seemed like a pretty nice guy, but when I read a 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. And many people, many of the greatest military scholars are saying for years that presidents should have taken out Iran because they wanted a nuclear weapon. They were — if we didn’t do the attack or if I’ll go a step further, if I didn’t terminate the Iran nuclear deal given to us, one of the worst deals ever made by Barack Hussein Obama. Remember when they sent Boeing 757 over there loaded with cash, hundreds of millions of dollars? You would have been very happy. This was a wonderful — they sent hundreds of million — people forget that. Does anybody remember, right? You remember! Hundreds of millions of dollars in a Boeing 757. I think they had two of them loaded. They took the seats out and they put cash. And it was so much that there wasn’t a bank in Virginia, Maryland, or DC that had any money left. They stripped them of all their money, put it into planes, sent it to Iran almost as ransom. That’s not going to happen with Trump. And nobody ever did anything about it. Nobody ever said anything. Can you imagine if I did that?
So, they’ve been a threat for a long time, but they’ve really been a threat. If — if I didn’t terminate Obama’s horrible deal that he made, the Iran nuclear deal, you would have had a nuclear war four years ago. You would have had — you would have had nuclear holocaust, and you would have had it again if we didn’t bomb the site.
So, when somebody is working with us that says they didn’t think Iran was a threat, we don’t want those people because — and there are some people, I guess, that would say that, but they’re not smart people or they’re not savvy people. Iran was a tremendous threat. And virtually every NATO nation — and this is the thing, if they told me it wasn’t a threat and therefore they don’t want to help, but when they say it was a threat and it was a major threat — every one of them — I think every one of them — I don’t know of one that said they’re not a threat, but when they say it was a threat, but we’re not going to help, I think they’re very foolish. You know, it’s interesting. It’s interesting because I could say this, that what’s happening in Ukraine, we’re probably in there for $400 billion. We don’t spend any money anymore. They buy it from us and they pay full price. But Biden gave them between 350 and $400 billion of equipment and cash. Someday, they’ll have to find out about the cash, and you could say that wasn’t a threat. You know, we’re helping them, so we helped them and they didn’t help us. And I think that’s a very bad thing for NATO.
.@DailyCaller’s @ReaganReese_: “Your Director of National Counterterrorism, Joe Kent — he just resigned today. He said he can’t support your conflict with Iran. What’s your reaction to that? And did you —”
President Trump: “Well, I read his statement. I always thought it was a… pic.twitter.com/JQULSOZjlu
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) March 17, 2026
Let’s go back to what Kent wrote in his letter. I am flabbergasted.
I guess we will see Kent on shows hosted by Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, and Megyn Kelly.
I never heard that Israel pressured the U.S. to invade Iraq in the 90s or in 2003.
You’re lying pic.twitter.com/m7gcJATtrJ
— Sunny (@sunnyright) March 17, 2026
Iran started this war in 1979. The regime has literal American blood on its hands.
Trump didn’t start a war with Iran. He is ending a war with Iran that Iran started.
On March 2, the White House detailed every act of terrorism Iran committed against America and American citizens.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini took over Iran on February 11, 1979.
The first act of terrorism? November 1979, when Iranian students, backed by the regime, captured the U.S. Embassy. They took 66 Americans hostage, and the standoff lasted 444 days.
Iran and its proxy terrorist groups attacked America in Beirut, Lebanon, four times from April 1983 to September 1984.
In October 1983, “Hezbollah terrorists killed 241 U.S. military personnel — including 220 U.S. Marines and 21 other service personnel — in a truck bombing at a Marine compound in Beirut.”
Let’s not forget that Iran is the top sponsor of global terrorism.
There are many false claims in this letter but let me address one specifically: that "Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation."
This is the same false claim that Democrats and some in the liberal media have been repeating over and over.
As President Trump has clearly and… https://t.co/AC8M5L8lye— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) March 17, 2026
[Featured image via YouTube]
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Comments
Sounds like a rhino TDS piece of s*** to me
At least, he resigned rather than your typical DC critter who leaks
Appears I may have a bout of “toxic empathy”
He’d been caught leaking prior to this. Not sure why he was still there.
He could have resigned without the preening self-promoting virtue signaling that makes Israel the bad guy in this conflict. He gets no praise from me for the way he handled this resignation.
In keeping with my belief that anyone who resigns with more than a simple, one sentence declaration of that intent is an idiot.
I agree that the threat is not imminent and congratulate Trump for dealing with Iran before it became so. This makes Epic Fury strategic rather than tactical. In the process, it saves a lot of American lives by taking on Iran before they could fully restore their offensive and defensive capabilities.
The lead in to this article sounds like Mary C supports this traitor’s allegations. Does she?
“I am still a democrat at heart and cannot with my democrat conscience support the war in Iran.”
Joe Kent seems to bounce around a bit.
Republican (2021–present)
Democratic (2019–2021)
Libertarian (2012–2019)
He is obviously looking for something.
I hope he finds it.
Oh he found it
BANK on it
The guy is a human windsock who has all the principles of a snake oil salesman.
Wait. What? Joe Kent(R), former CIA paramilitary officer, former army officer, and (now former) current director of the National Counterterrorism Center for barely one year resigns because he disagrees with Trump going to war with ***checks notes*** the world’s largest sponsor of global terrorism going on 47 years, Iran.
CIA Joe. Probably just a coincidence.
there are no coincidences in DC
How can someone so connected be so wrong?
I worked with NCTC pretty often. They are the cream of the crop. Too bad their former boss isn’t.
Yeah, the rank & file of the NCTC are a good group. Some really innovative work being done there.
I would like to know specifically which “influential members of the American media” were the ones who “deployed misinformation” and fooled the naive, gullible Trump.
Alternative realities, anyone?
Haha, it certainly wasn’t Tucker Carlson
The guy sounds a bit like a nut case.
Anyone who claims Iran was not an IMMINENT threat is not someone who should be anywhere near the wheels of power.
A nuclear armed Iran would have been an absolute catastrophe for the entire world. Imagine the straight of hormuz shit, but on a global scale AND with nuclear weapons.
I’d love to hear what Andrew Branca thinks about this use of the word “imminent.”
It seems to mean one thing when we threatened peons need to use it, but quite another when the Big Club needs to use it.
This guy is a nutter with a tortured soul. Rather than putting the blame where it belongs — that is, on ISIS — he’s convinced himself that Israel caused his wife’s death. His wife was a Navy intelligence officer and was killed in 2019 in an ISIS bombing in Syria.
In his resignation letter, posted on X, he writes: “As a veteran who deployed to combat 11 times and as a Gold Star husband who lost my wife Shannon in a war manufactured by Israel, I cannot support sending the next generation to fight and die in a war that serves no benefit to the American people or justifies the cost of American lives.”
This guy blames his wife’s death on Israel? That explains, but, doesn’t excuse, his mindset and attitudes.
Just a totally toxic, malignantly narcissistic psycho. He can’t handle the death of his wife like a normal, grieving person — he has to turn it into a vehicle for political self-aggrandizement and grandstanding, burning everything around him.
This guy is despicable.
The guy’s resignation letter praises #47 for having destroyed ISIS, but then blames Israel for an ISIS bombing that killed his wife. The letter is filled with utterly unhinged, conspiratorial and baseless invective against Israel and accusations about Israel influencing #47’s foreign policy.
I reiterate that this guy is a pathological narcissist and psycho.
Good — another useful idiot, emasculated, pro-Islamofascist/Muslim terrorist dhimmi subversive who never should have been hired, in the first place.
It’s helpful that these narcissists and fifth columnists out themselves as disloyal, pro-Islamofascist dupes, thanks to their performative grandstanding and narcissism.
It’s concerning to me that a credulous, naive, stupid, whatever-motive guy who earnestly and gullibly believes that a despotic regime that spouts belligerent rhetoric, 24/7; is totally devoted to engaging in Islamic “holy war;” and which has sponsored innumerable terrorist attacks against U.S. and allied personnel and interests, since 1979, was appointed as director of the National Counterterrorism Center (whatever the hell that is), in the first place.
This idiot never should have made it past the first interview, for the position.
The FBI should examine this guy’s bank accounts and assets. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that he’s received some Iranian and/or Qatari baksheesh.
Kent, Dems, et al, all say there is no “eminent threat” Just what does eminent mean to them,…the missile is in the air headed towards DC, or the dirty nuke suitcase bomb just arrived at IAD in a Diplomatic Pouch? They never explain just how close Iran has to be for the threat they pose to be “eminent”
According to Steve Whitcoff, the Iranians started off the last round of negotiations with the declaration that they had enough enriched uranium for 11 nukes. I’d call that imminent. They don’t need an ICBM for a dirty bomb.
They don’t even need an airplane, just a small ship sailing quietly into a NY Harbor.
Not NYC. They already took that city, Maybe LA.
Imminent, not eminent. Two completely unrelated words.
Thanks,..I typed in imminent and it got indicated as misspelled
Heck, I type properly spelled words on Apple products and autocorrect changes them because it has a worse vocabulary than I do. Sometimes I do a double take, question myself, and check a dictionary. It’s all copacetic.
The U.S.’s military action against the Iranian Islamofascist/terrorist regime is fairly and factually characterized as a long overdue “reprisal,” given that this evil and wretched regime had already de facto declared war against the U.S., when it invaded the U.S. embassy and took hostages, in 1979; when it followed that up with the bombing of U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon, killing 241, in 1983; and, when it committed innumerable other terrorist attacks against U.S. and allied personnel and interests, after that.
That’s the salient and relevant history and context that gullible, narcissistic fools such as Kent and his wretched ilk ignore.
You hired a counter terrorism director you knew was weak on security! Peak Clown World.
I would like to point out that Trump did not personally hire the guy or interview him and quite likely has never even met him. A general rule about management is that you know what the next level below you does, and you have and understanding on the role of the level below that, but you usually honestly know nothing about the third level below.
If he never met him then how could he have thought he was a nice guy but very weak on security?
Hell Milhouse, I’ve never met YOU but I think you’re a nice guy. I may be the only one that thinks that, but I do. You don’t need to overthink EVERYTHING, okay? It kind of suggests that our most eminent of the loyal opposition is facing an imminent diagnosis of OCD., OKAY?
Perhaps by reading papers he published? Isn’t that a big part of the job for the various presidential advisors?
Probably briefed him as well. Then again it’s Trump.
The buck stops … Somewhere else?
I suppose it’s forgivable so long as Trump fires whoever hired him and whoever hired that guy.
That apparently would be Tulsi Gabbard. Hmmmm
Ugh, fire whoever hired her too.
Far too many Deep Staters hire people like this–the process is delegated. Should have asked him to leave a lot sooner, however.
Hope Kent enjoys cashing the check.
Probably Iranian and Qatari checks. I’d scrutinize his bank accounts.
appointed as director of the National Counterterrorism Center (whatever the hell that is), in the first place.
WTH?
I think he should have been fired, not allowed to resign , let him go on Tucker and spill his bs, not wrote it on a resignation letter
Bad move Tulsi..
If you wait for an imminent threat you’ve waited t00 long.
so what!!
of course there is “pressure” from anyone who is under duress as the freedom lovers are sitting in a deficit to the violent prone jasmine crookette types who are running and ruining america
joe is looking to be in the tucker carlson administration
Kent lost, twice, in a Congressional district that voted Trump.
I sent him a few bucks.
Kent always came off as a bit of a whack job. Good riddance. Doesn’t belong in government.
So Israel was responsible for us “tricking” us into taking out Saddam Hussein?
You just can’t reason with people like that. They are fundamentally broken.
It really was not necessary for Trump to get personal in his response to Kent. That was just downright petty.
Peak Clown World? This is Peak Clown World.
Arrrrrgh!!! My eyes, my eyes!!
Here’s my spin of the Iran situation as to why, and why now.
Why:
1. Iran has meddled in the middle east for decades and installed militant groups/armies in every country they could, and tried to do so in others. They have tried to take control of the entire area.. They have sponsored terrorism.
All these things are to the detriment of the United States.
2. It’s no secret that Iran has attempted to build nuclear weapons. While they have been slowed through negotiations and actions (stuxnet e.g.) they have never abandoned their attempts. A nuclear Iran increases its power substantially.
Why now:
Iran made a terrible mistake in allowing Hamas to attack Israel. Perhaps they condoned it or merely were not alert enough to stop it from happening. The result has been the severe weakening of Iran’s proxy armies in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Palestine. Without them Iran is unable exert ground troop pressure beyond its borders. Only the Houthi’s remain and they’re pretty quiet right now.
1. Both Russia and China are occupied with other problems right now. For Russia, money and munitions are tied up in Ukraine. Further, with Syria out of Iran’s control there is no land route to transfer weapons to Iran. China is engaged in a huge internal power struggle between Xi and the military. It’s not really possible to agree to send armies abroad, and again there is no ground route. Both countries are going to have to sit this one out, unlike, say , in Vietnam in the 1970’s.
2. There are a few options in dealing with Iran:
A. Do nothing at all and hope that Iran is unable to develop a nuclear weapon after the bombing in July.
B. Do nothing now but plan to do something later.
C. Do something now.
Why doing something now is the best choice:
As mentioned above Iran is as weak as it has ever been because of the loss of its proxy armies and because Russia and China are unable to help right now. Israel is on a full war footing. The Saudi’s, Qatar, and the UAE (and others not previously publicly aligned against Iran are now in support of this war. The Iranian leadership is in disarray.
If the U.S. stops now:
At some point, Israel will become exhausted by war. Russia and China will recover enough to start material support to Iran. Iran will reassemble a leadership structure. The proxy armies will recover -they can never be wiped out completely – and Iran will recover enough that in 10 years, they’ll be a power and threat in the region again.
Pretty good analysis of the timing and reasons re Iran. I’d add that IMO what Trump is doing is clearing the board for dealing with China, which is the true geopolitical strategic threat, establishing US Hegemony in our hemisphere and setting the stage for the return to multi polar world power games but with the best possible positioning for the USA.
1. Russia isn’t a true strategic rival. Whatever and may claim about their ambitions their reach is pretty limited.
2. Keeping Russia in Ukraine drains them with a war a of attrition which Ukraine can’t win but costs Russia to win.
3. Flipping the board in Syria blunted Russian influence in the Levent.
4. The actions in Venezuela upended the board in the drug trade and removed a major source of oil/gas from China.
5. Venezuela also is bringing the Cuban regime to its knees. Possibly to be overthrown internally or a ‘negotiated’ exit for the top regime brass in favor of a more US friendly gov’t.
6. Iran’s energy exports fuel China. Especially without cheaper than market Venezuelan crude flowing to China.
7. Tariffs are another crucial part of the equation in this process. Increase Federal revenue, ends one sided tariff and non tariff trade barriers on US exports which helps companies and employees, makes a better case for reshore of domestic manufacturing base, makes us less dependent on imports overall and less dependent in particular from supply lines controlled by China.
8. Exposed the antiquated alliances and fair weather allies for who they are and informed us how much we can actually depend on them; very little. Consequently we can stop worrying about diplomatic soft power BS complaints from these second to third rate powers and frankly ignore their posturing. They need us far more than we need them, particularly now that we supply their LNG.
IMO all these actions are the training camp and preseason games being held in advance of and in preparation for the upcoming ‘regular season’ competition with China. Hopefully these actions weaken and isolate China enough that they curb their ambitions for any direct conflict. If not then at minimum these actions have improved the prospect of USA emerging as the victor of that conflict.
Russia is a mere regional power these days and has very little in its back pocket to be able to extend any influence any further.
The EU’s refusal to send assets to help secure The Hormuz strait is a blunder on NATO’s behalf. The EU relies on oil floweing through the straights. America does not. Yet NATO refuses to protect THEIR oil life line.
Additionally, unlike the war in the Ukraine…the war in Iran that would be viewed as supporting Israel IS a problem for a very large body of very violent and highly motivated “global citizens” that the EU has allowed to occupy larges areas of land. So I guess its understandabe why the EU and NATO dont want to get involved.
In the Ukraine its a white on white war but in Iran its Jew on Muslim and that is a huge problem for a very large section of European society who are only far to happy to get their riot on.
So as far as Im concerned, once everything calms down then Trump should ensure that the vast majority of the Iranian oil thats about to hit the market fuels the American economy and not Europes. Let them continue to buy Russian oil.
Pretty much I’d agree but I’d say Russia is more than a mere regional power. They do have nukes and ability to deliver them. Their natural resource wealth is vast. Their obstacle is population size. That and a bad neighbor in China to the East, potential bad neighbors in the Islamic Nations to their South Central region and then there’s the constant NATO expansion from the West. The Russians are geographically ‘fenced in’ but simultaneously sitting on vast wealth and occupying the pivotal, strategic territory between Occidental and Oriental. That’s what makes them ‘paranoid’ they’ve a history of being invaded and when viewed from that perspective its easier to understand why they pushed back on Ukraine and the NATO expansion. Doesn’t justify or make it morally correct but it does explain it.
We should be working with Russia once we get Ukraine solved. If that means dumping our ‘allies’ in most of Western Europe over it so that we can be better positioned to confront China ….so be it.
Absolutely we should be working with Russia but the Democrats have backed themseves i to a corner by creating this Russian monster that only exists in their pygmy brains.
Because Democrat have backed themselves in to their self created corner and have branded Trump as a traitor for being propped up by Russia they absolutely cannot ever work with Russia because that will just blow their whole muh russia conspiracy out of the water.
Also, probably a bigger problem for Russia is corruption. They may have cast wealth but thanks to corruption of the State and everything below it they have no way of exploiting those resources for the benefit of their people.
Agreed.
Keep culling these weak-kneed *sshats. This guy rivals MTG in being all over the map. Good riddance!
There was supposed to be a pro-Iran cabal in the national security apparatus. If true I wonder if they got rid of them yet. I’m thinking nope for the same reason this nut job was still around. Its hard to fire government employees unless they are political appointments.
Then why did you appoint him to a security-critical position?
same reasons people get married “at first” and then it turns out not to be what you had hoped or thought it would/could be
I’m surprised you never heard it. Of course it’s not true, but it was common chatter 20 years ago, mostly attributable to two antisemites named Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer.
And yet in the ’80s, when we were supporting Saddam Hussein as our enemy’s enemy, Israel was supporting the Iranian mullahs because it saw Hussein as the greater threat.
at different moments in time ,,,threat levels can and do change
cuba was always a threat but sometimes not as much,,to the usa
Quick let’s make tgis yahoo the president of Columbia University; he’s got the correct mindset and values system for it.
If the counterterrorism chief thinks Iran— financier of global Islamic terrorism and wannabe nuclear armed bunch of religious zealots (bent on exterminating The Great Satan and The Little Satan)—poses no immanent threat, it’s great he resigned because he’s clear an incompetent k ow nothing. Could have done without the self-righteous posing though.
Kent is full of s&*t!