Top US counterterrorism official Kent resigns over Trump's Iran war

A senior US counterterrorism official resigned on Tuesday to protest the US-Israeli war against Iran and said the Islamic Republic posed no imminent threat to the United States.

"I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran," Joseph Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), said in his resignation letter to President Donald Trump.

Kent — a former member of the Green Beret special forces who served multiple combat tours -- said "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."

Kent, 45, who was appointed to head the NCTC by Trump, is the first senior US official to resign from his administration to protest the war against Iran.

Trump, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, accused Kent of being "very weak on security" and said it's a "good thing that he's out."

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt pushed back against what she called "false claims" in Kent's resignation letter, calling "insulting and laughable" the suggestion that the decision to go to war was made "based on the influence of others."

"As President Trump has clearly and explicitly stated, he had strong and compelling evidence that Iran was going to attack the United States first," Leavitt said.

"President Trump ultimately made the determination that a joint attack with Israel would greatly reduce the risk to American lives that would come from a first strike by the terrorist Iranian regime and address this imminent threat to America's national security interests," she said.

Kent's wife, Shannon, also served in the US military and was killed in a suicide bombing in Syria in 2019.

"As a Gold Star husband who lost my beloved wife Shannon in a war manufactured by Israel, I cannot support sending the next generation off to fight and die in a war that serves no benefit to the American people nor justifies the cost of American lives," Kent wrote.

As head of the NCTC, Kent worked under Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, analyzing and coordinating the US response to terrorist threats and serving as the principal counterterrorism adviser to the president.

"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," Kent said in his letter to Trump, which he posted on X.

Kent accused "high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media" with engaging in a misinformation campaign that "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," he said.

"This was a lie and is the same tactic the Israelis used to draw us into the disastrous Iraq war," Kent said.

"I cannot support sending the next generation off to fight and die in a war that serves no benefit to the American people nor justifies the cost of American lives," he added.

Senator Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said Kent's "record is deeply troubling."

"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," Warner said.

Kent ran twice unsuccessfully -- in 2022 and 2024 -- as a Trump-endorsed Republican for a seat in the US House of Representatives from Washington state.

Agence France-Presse