National Counterterrorism Center director resigns over Iran war

The director of the National Counterterrorism Center, a retired Green Beret and longtime supporter of President Donald Trump, said he has resigned over the war in Iran.

“I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation," Joe Kent said Tuesday in a statement on X. "It is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby."

The National Counterterrorism Center oversees U.S. government intelligence on terrorist threats and retains a database of all known and suspected terrorists.

Kent worked under Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, and the two were political allies. Gabbard has kept a low profile since the war started and has previously criticized U.S. military interventions abroad.

Kent wrote in a letter to Trump posted on X that he supported the president's values during his first term. But he said Trump had been wrongly swayed by the Israelis and he could not 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."

The White House rejected Kent’s criticisms.

“As President Trump has clearly and explicitly stated, he had strong and compelling evidence that Iran was going to attack the United States first,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on social media.

The decision took into account that Iran sponsors terrorism, that it has killed Americans, that it had a ballistic missile program that served as a shield for its nuclear program and that it failed to take advantage of U.S. diplomatic overtures, Leavitt wrote.

Gabbard said in a statement on X that Trump was responsible for determining what is and isn't an imminent threat. Her office, she said, is responsible for coordinating intelligence to provide Trump with the best information available.

For Subscribers

FOR SUBSCRIBERSDOJ gets aggressive in suing states that challenge Trump’s immigration policies

FOR SUBSCRIBERSJustice Department seeks criminal charge for former Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson

FOR SUBSCRIBERS‘I just want to hold him’: USS Lincoln sailor to meet his 10-month-old son as ship docks

FOR SUBSCRIBERSSenate candidates run on raising Social Security taxes for higher incomes to prevent benefit cuts

FOR SUBSCRIBERSRussian operation that used ChatGPT tricked schools, a politician and media, OpenAI says

FOR SUBSCRIBERSTrump administration’s deal with Nevada fuels data center fight in governor’s race

FOR SUBSCRIBERSLatino voters reject Trump’s immigration policies — and detail the personal impact

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAs Democrats eye big midterm gains, the Wisconsin governor’s race remains a nail-biter

FOR SUBSCRIBERSU.S. military prepares new Iran war options ahead of midterm elections

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCIA probe into intel leak led to discovery of gold bars at agent’s home, sources say

FOR SUBSCRIBERSTexas Latino leaders clash with national Democrats in a meeting over gubernatorial race

FOR SUBSCRIBERS‘Still in this very long day that started on Oct. 7th’

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAnimal rescues in Cuba struggle to care for abandoned pets amid deepening economic crisis

FOR SUBSCRIBERSLocals called their town ‘Almost Heaven’. A plan to open a Buc-ee’s exposed its underbelly.

FOR SUBSCRIBERSTrump keeps touting $21 trillion coming into the U.S. Even his website says it’s half that.

Slide 1 of 1

For Subscribers

FOR SUBSCRIBERSDOJ gets aggressive in suing states that challenge Trump’s immigration policies

FOR SUBSCRIBERSJustice Department seeks criminal charge for former Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson

FOR SUBSCRIBERS‘I just want to hold him’: USS Lincoln sailor to meet his 10-month-old son as ship docks

FOR SUBSCRIBERSSenate candidates run on raising Social Security taxes for higher incomes to prevent benefit cuts

FOR SUBSCRIBERSRussian operation that used ChatGPT tricked schools, a politician and media, OpenAI says

FOR SUBSCRIBERSTrump administration’s deal with Nevada fuels data center fight in governor’s race

FOR SUBSCRIBERSLatino voters reject Trump’s immigration policies — and detail the personal impact

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAs Democrats eye big midterm gains, the Wisconsin governor’s race remains a nail-biter

FOR SUBSCRIBERSU.S. military prepares new Iran war options ahead of midterm elections

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCIA probe into intel leak led to discovery of gold bars at agent’s home, sources say

FOR SUBSCRIBERSTexas Latino leaders clash with national Democrats in a meeting over gubernatorial race

FOR SUBSCRIBERS‘Still in this very long day that started on Oct. 7th’

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAnimal rescues in Cuba struggle to care for abandoned pets amid deepening economic crisis

FOR SUBSCRIBERSLocals called their town ‘Almost Heaven’. A plan to open a Buc-ee’s exposed its underbelly.

FOR SUBSCRIBERSTrump keeps touting $21 trillion coming into the U.S. Even his website says it’s half that.

Slide 1 of 1

"After carefully reviewing all the information before him, President Trump concluded that the terrorist Islamist regime in Iran posed an imminent threat and he took action based on that conclusion."

Kent served in the Army Special Forces, undertaking 11 combat deployments during a 20-year career, and later worked at the CIA. His wife, Shannon Kent, a Navy cryptologist, died in a terrorist bombing in Syria in 2019.

Trump and his supporters have said the intelligence community sought to undermine the president in the past and needed a radical overhaul.

Kent's placement at the center was part of a wider effort by the administration to put trusted loyalists and partisan activists in senior government positions in intelligence, law enforcement and diplomacy. He called Jan. 6 rioters “political prisoners” and has had ties to a man police say was a member of the Proud Boys far-right group.

Kent came under scrutiny in May after two veteran intelligence analysts were fired by Gabbard after their assessment contradicted claims by the White House about the Venezuelan criminal gang Tren de Aragua and its relationship with the regime in Caracas. President Trump had asserted that the gang operated under the direction of the Venezuelan regime, but the analysts concluded that was not the case.

Emails released by Gabbard’s office showed Kent pressing the intelligence analysts to amend their assessment to adhere more closely to the Trump administration’s view and to add criticism of immigration policies pursued by the former Biden administration.