President Trump’s National Counterterrorism Center director, Joe Kent, resigned immediately over the U.S. war in Iran, stating Tehran posed no imminent threat to America.
Kent, a retired Green Beret confirmed by the Senate in July 2025, called the conflict “manufactured” and attributed its origin to pressure from Israel and its U.S. lobbying apparatus.
“I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran,” Kent wrote in his resignation letter addressed to the president.
As the administration’s top counterterrorism adviser, Kent’s departure marks the highest-level resignation over the Iran conflict.