Another Trump Loyalist Turns Critic: Who is Joe Kent, the Top Counterterrorism Official who Quit Over the Iran War?

Key Points:

The tension in the Middle East escalated following U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s joint military operation in Iran on February 28, 2026. As the West Asia conflict entered its third week after the fall of the Ayatollah regime and the assassination of former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, chaos erupted across the globe.

Now, another feather has fallen from Trump’s crown, as one of his top counterterrorism officials, Joe Kent, has resigned over the war in Iran.

“I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran,” wrote Kent in an X post dated March 17, 2026. He further claimed that the Middle Eastern country “posed no threat” and added that “it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”

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Kent’s resignation comes weeks after Trump supporter and far-right political commentator Tucker Carlson stated on his podcast, “This is Israel’s war, not America’s war.”

Joe Kent served as the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center from 2025 to 2026 and worked under Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Kent’s sudden resignation has sparked outrage, with some calling it a “moral decision,” while others have criticized it.

After Kent resigned, urging the President of the United States (POTUS) to “reverse course,” Gabbard and the White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt came forward to support Trump’s decision to go to war against Iran.

The former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center is a member of the Republican Party and has also served in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Who is Joe Kent?

Joseph Clay Kent is an American politician who joined the military at the age of 17. Born in Oregon, USA, Kent was deployed to Iraq after completing his military training in 2003 and was sent to fight in the Battle of Fallujah with the goal of locating Iraqi officials. He has completed eleven combat tours and served as a paramilitary officer in the CIA.

He married his first wife, Shannon Smith, who was a cryptologic technician in the United States Navy. Smith was killed in the 2019 Manbij suicide bombing during the Syrian war, when a suicide bomber attacked a crowded market area in Manbij, Syria. At the time of her death, the couple had two young children.

Kent’s political career took off in 2021 when he decided to run for Congress as a Republican in Washington’s 3rd district. He was a Trump supporter and chose to run after then-Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler voted to impeach Donald Trump following the Capitol attack by Trump’s supporters on January 6, 2021.

Kent also received campaign funding from tech mogul Peter Thiel and Steve Wynn. His political journey garnered widespread attention after his appearances on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show. Four years later, in 2025, President Donald Trump chose Joe Kent to be the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center.

Cut to the present: a joint U.S.-Israeli military airstrike ended the Ayatollah regime in Iran after more than three decades. A week after the killing of Ayatollah Khamenei, his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, was declared the next Supreme Leader of Iran on March 8, 2026.

See Also: Trump Vows To Punish Iran, But Leaves Door Open For Further Talks

With the West Asia conflict creating a ripple effect across the world and leading to extreme global economic fluctuations, the war in Iran has become a subject of criticism.

Why did Joe Kent Resign?

On March 17, 2026, Joe Kent took to X to announce his resignation as the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, effective the same day. He praised the values and foreign policies initiated by the POTUS during his first term in office. “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 wrote.

He further added that Trump understood the importance of using military power without getting into “never-ending wars” better than his predecessors. He claimed that at the beginning of Trump’s second term as U.S. President, “high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media” spread false information that promoted pro-war sentiments against Iran.

Kent cited the example of the Iraq War and said that the echo chamber has once again led people to believe that Iran poses an imminent threat to the United States. He stated, “As a veteran who deployed to combat 11 times and 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 urged the POTUS to reverse course and reflect on the current actions of the United States.

Following Kent’s resignation, Karoline Leavitt called him out on X. She posted a statement clarifying that the claim that Iran poses no threat is “false” and promoted by Democrats. She added, “President Trump has clearly and explicitly stated he had strong and compelling evidence that Iran was going to attack the United States first.”

Calling Iran the leading sponsor of terrorism, Leavitt stated that President Trump’s actions are in the best interest of the country.

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