Joseph Kent, one of the most influential figures in the United States national security apparatus and until now director of the National Counterterrorism Center, has shaken the Trump Administration with an unprecedented resignation. His resignation, accompanied by a public letter full of political and personal reproaches, opens a new internal front in the White House in the midst of a military offensive against Iran.
A moral break with current foreign policy
In the letter spread on social networks, Kent states that his decision comes after “deep reflection” and marks a break with the strategy of the current Administration. “I cannot, in good conscience, support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran did not pose an imminent threat to our nation,” wrote the official, who submitted his resignation effective immediately.
The combat veteran denounces that the military offensive does not respond to American interests, but to those of a foreign ally. According to his version, the conflict was driven “by pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,” an accusation of unusual harshness in a senior intelligence official.
Direct criticism of Trump’s drift
Kent appeals in his letter to the original values of the “America First” doctrine, which – he claims – Trump himself defended in his 2016, 2020 and 2024 campaigns and in his first term. In his opinion, this line of foreign policy avoided the “endless wars” in the Middle East, but it would have subsequently been “undermined by a disinformation campaign” that, according to him, pushed the White House towards an unnecessary confrontation with Tehran.
“This sounding board was used to deceive them into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat,” Kent maintains, comparing the current invasion to the Iraq war and its “cost in the lives of thousands of our best men and women.”
A veteran scarred by war
The letter also has a personal tone. Kent remembers that he fought in eleven missions and that his wife, Shannon, died in a military intervention “manufactured by Israel.” Therefore, he affirms that he cannot be complicit in dragging “the next generation to die in a war that does not benefit the American people.”
The former director concludes his message with a call to Trump himself to “rectify course and chart a new path” that avoids plunging the country “into decadence and chaos.” His resignation, loaded with ideological and moral reproaches, reignites the internal debate about the direction of Washington’s foreign policy and the role of its allies in the Iran conflict.
The White House defends the offensive and accuses Kent of “repeating Democratic arguments”
From the White House, presidential spokesperson Karoline Leavitt has responded harshly to the former counterterrorism chief’s claims. In a statement, Leavitt says Kent’s letter “contains many falsehoods” and especially rejects the idea that Iran did not represent an imminent threat.
According to the spokeswoman, President Trump “had strong and convincing evidence that Iran planned to attack the United States first.” He added that this information came “from multiple sources and factors,” and that the president “would never make a military decision in a vacuum.”
Leavitt called the Iranian regime the “principal state sponsor of terrorism” and argued that “the joint operation with Israel dramatically reduced the risk to American lives and responded to a real and imminent threat to national security.”
Finally, he called the accusation that Trump acted under foreign influence “insulting and ridiculous”: “The president has been defending for decades that Iran should never possess a nuclear weapon. His decisions always seek the best for the United States. America first.”
The real link between Trump and Kent: much more than “I didn’t know him well”
Although President Trump has minimized his relationship with Joe Kent, stating that he “didn’t know him well” and that he “thought he seemed like a pretty nice guy,” in addition to stating that he always thought he was “very weak on security” and that when he read his statement, he realized that “it’s a good thing he’s gone because he said Iran wasn’t a threat.” The political history between the two reveals a much longer and deeper bond, forged in the MAGA circle and backed by multiple public supports from the former president.
Trump met Kent personally in 2019 at Dover Air Base (Delaware), during the transfer of the remains of his wife Shannon, killed in an attack in Syria. In that meeting, Trump told him directly that he “should someday run for public office” and he was “incredibly impressed” by him, in his own words.
Since then, Trump has been an ardent supporter of Kent in his two unsuccessful campaigns (2022 and 2024) for Washington’s 3rd congressional district against Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez.
In 2021, he gave him his “full and total endorsement,” describing him as a “retired Green Beret” who would be a “warrior for the America First agenda.” In 2022, he participated in a telephone rally to praise him as “his fully endorsed candidate” and in 2024 he repeated the explicit endorsement, despite Kent’s electoral defeats.
This support positioned Kent as a key MAGA figure, which facilitated his appointment as director of the National Counterterrorism Center in the current Administration. Trump’s current disavowal appears to be an attempt to distance himself from Kent’s criticism of the war in Iran, contrasting with years of public advocacy that is now downplayed.
