Top Trump counterterrorism official Joe Kent resigns over Iran, saying it “posed no imminent threat to our nation”
President Trump’s National Counterterrorism Center director Joe Kent announced his immediate resignation Tuesday, citing the decision to start war against Iran when “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation.”
Kent, appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate last year, issued his resignation letter on Tuesday morning. He claimed the war was “manufactured” by Israel.
“I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran,” Kent wrote in his resignation letter to the president and published on X. “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war under pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”
He is the highest-ranking Trump administration official to announce his resignation over the Iran war. As director of the National Counterterrorism Center, he led U.S. counterterrorism and counternarcotics efforts and served as the President’s principal counterterrorism advisor.
A retired Green Beret veteran, Kent was confirmed in July 2025, after Mr. Trump nominated him to the position in February 2025.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
