Trump’s top counterterrorism aide resigns, citing Iran war

By JOHN SAKELLARIADIS
03/17/2026 10:17 AM EDT
Updated: 03/17/2026 12:29 PM EDT

Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, announced Tuesday he was resigning over the war in Iran — a stunning defection that shows how President Donald Trump’s decision to strike Tehran has divided some of the most loyal corners of his administration.
“I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran,” Joe Kent, the head of the national counterterrorism center, said in a resignation letter posted to X on Tuesday morning. “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 did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Spokespeople for the White House and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which houses the NCTC, also did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Kent’s statement.
Trump nominated Kent for his post in February 2025. He was confirmed by the Senate last July.
Kent closely aligned himself with Trump as part of an unsuccessful run for Congress in 2022, when he claimed the 2020 election was stolen and called Jan. 6 rioters “political prisoners.” He ran again in 2024 and lost to Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.), who won a second term.
In his letter, Kent said Iran “posed no imminent threat” to the United States. He claimed American media, high-ranking Israeli officials and influential Israeli lobbyists “deployed a misinformation campaign” 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,” Kent wrote. “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.”

Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/17/joe-kent-resigns-iran-war-00831187