Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, resigned Tuesday in protest over President Donald Trump's war with Iran, becoming the first senior administration official to break with the White House over the conflict publicly. He alleged that Israel pressured the Trump administration into entering the war.
In a resignation letter posted online and reported by multiple outlets, Kent said Iran posed "no imminent threat" to the United States and argued the administration had entered a war that did not meet the threshold of immediate national self-defense. Kent wrote, "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."
After much reflection, I have decided to resign from my position as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, effective today.
— Joe Kent (@joekent16jan19) March 17, 2026
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
Kent is a former Army Special Forces soldier and CIA paramilitary officer who later became a prominent "America First" political figure. He enlisted in the U.S. military shortly before 9/11 and retired in 2018 to join the CIA. After his wife was killed in a suicide bombing in Syria in 2019, he became an advocate against the War on Terror and U.S. interventionism.
He is a longtime Trump ally, military veteran, and former congressional candidate in Washington state who twice lost House races before moving into the administration. He was confirmed by the Senate on July 30, 2025, by a 52-44 vote to lead NCTC. His previous record was a source of scrutiny as he had ties to the far-right military group the Proud Boys and the Christian nationalist group Patriot Prayer.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt denounced Kent's resignation letter, writing on social media, "There are many false claims in this letter but let me address one specifically: that 'Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation.'... As President Trump has clearly and explicitly stated, he had strong and compelling evidence that Iran was going to attack the United States first."
There are many false claims in this letter but let me address one specifically: that "Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation."
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) March 17, 2026
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
Trump also responded personally, dismissing Kent as "weak on security," adding that it was "a good thing" he was out. Kent's resignation matters because the National Counterterrorism Center sits at the heart of the U.S. intelligence architecture. The center, housed under the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, is responsible for integrating counterterrorism intelligence across agencies and helping coordinate the government's response to terrorist threats.
The resignation also lands at a politically difficult moment for Trump, as National Intelligence Council assessments had already warned that Iran was likely to retaliate and that hopes for regime collapse were unrealistic. That intelligence backdrop gives Kent's protest greater weight, even as the White House sharply attacked parts of his resignation letter.
Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, and a longtime critic of Kent's, wrote in a statement, "Joe Kent's record is deeply troubling, and in my view he never should have been confirmed to lead the National Counterterrorism Center. I strongly disagree with many of the positions he has espoused over the years... But on this point, he is right: there was no credible evidence of an imminent threat from Iran that would justify rushing the United States into another war of choice in the Middle East."
