Trump’s top counterintelligence official quits in protest over Iran as he issues blistering statement claiming Israel dragged US into the war

‘I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war’

Donald Trump’s top counter terrorism official has resigned in protest over the Iran war, accusing Israel of pressuring the US into a conflict he says was built on lies

Joseph Kent, Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said Iran posed no imminent threat and the war was started ‘due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby’

Kent accused high-ranking Israeli officials and members of the American media of running a ‘misinformation campaign’ to deceive the President into believing Iran posed an imminent threat

The departing counterintelligence chief draws a direct parallel to the lead-up to the Iraq war

Kent, who serves under Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, accused the President of reneging on the non-interventionist principles he campaigned on

Kent is a major political ally of Vice President JD Vance and DNI Tulsi Gabbard ****

Joseph Kent Director of the National Counterterrorism resigned in protest over the Iran war. Drawing direct parallel to the lead-up to the Iraq war, he accused Israel and its ‘powerful American lobby’ of pressuring the US into a conflict he says was built on lies

Donald Trump’s top counter terrorism official has resigned in protest over the Iran war, accusing Israel of pressuring the US into a conflict he says was built on lies.
Joseph Kent, Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said Iran posed no imminent threat and the war was started ‘due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,’ adding: ‘I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war.’ 
Kent, 45, who served under Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, accused the President of reneging on the non-interventionist platform he touted while campaigning for 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,’ the former Army Special Forces soldier wrote in his resignation letter.
‘The time for bold action is now. You can reverse course and chart a new path for our nation, or you can allow us to slip further toward decline and chaos. You hold the cards.’  

Kent publicly broke ranks with Donald Trump, claiming the president had reneged on his campaign promise of upholding the non-interventionist principle in the middle east – a major part of his campaign platform. Analysts say Trump ‘miscalculated this war’, asy allies hold back on going after Iran gains in Strait of Hormuz

Kent, who deployed to combat 11 times and lost his wife Shannon in what he calls a war manufactured by Israel. Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Shannon Kent was killed in action on January 16, 2019, in a suicide bombing in Manbij, Syria. The 35-year-old JSOC cryptologist and mother to two young sons was part of the Navy SEALs team deployed in the combat zone.
The departing counterintelligence chief Kent, is closely aligned with the populist ‘America First’ wing of the Trump administration, including Gabbard and Vice President JD Vance, who have both warned against new Middle East entanglements. 
His resignation lays bare a widening split inside Trump world.

Navy Senior Petty Officer cryptologist Shannon Kent seen [photo], with husband Joe and their two young boys, was killed in a suicide bombing in Syria. Kent claims she ‘died in a war manufactured by Israel’

Kent accused high-ranking Israeli officials and members of the American media of running a ‘misinformation campaign’ to deceive the President into believing Iran posed an imminent threat, drawing a direct parallel to the lead-up to the Iraq war. 
The divide pits the Gabbard-Vance non-interventionist faction against hawkish Republicans who back US support for Israel and a harder line on Tehran.
Speaker Mike Johnson was asked about Kent’s accusations that the US launched the war against Iran because of Israel. 
Johnson again repeated the Trump administration’s claim that there was an immediate threat from Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon. Trump claimed last summer the US had obliterated Iran’s nuclear program.
‘I don’t know where Joe Kent is getting his information because he wasn’t in those briefings,’ Johnson told reporters. ‘Had the president waited, we would have had mass casualties of Americans.’ 

Kent who’s accusing high-ranking Israeli officials and members of the American media of running a ‘misinformation campaign’ to deceive Trump, along with VP JD President Vance and Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, are seen as the major anti-interventionist voices within the Trump administration 

Trump’s ongoing war has spiraled across the Middle East, leading to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and deaths of 13 troops with hundreds more injured across seven countries. 
Gas prices have surged to an average of $3.80 a gallon from $2.90 before the conflict began three weeks ago, while the narrow strait – through which a fifth of the world’s oil flows – remains blocked by the threat of Iranian mines and missiles. 
Kent is seen as a key ally of Vice President Vance, as both built their political careers opposing foreign wars and championing Trump’s ‘America First’ principles. 
Kent’s decision to blame Israel for lobbying Trump to launch the war against Iran underscores a growing divide within the GOP over support for the US Middle Eastern ally.
The VP’s foreign policy views were also backed by National Intelligence Director, Tulsi Gabbard, sources said has pushed the non-interventionist voices to the periphery of Trump’s inner circle, since the decision to launch the war.
In his resignation letter, Kent also echoed the criticism of several influential figures in Trump’s “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) movement.

The fury of projectile exchanges, unprecedented in the history of modern warfare, has cost thousands of lives with millions of internally displaced persons while burning through billions of dollars in armament for the protagonists

Explaining cause for the war to MAGA supporters has proved knotty for the Trump administration as many have condemned the war with Iran despite campaign pledges to end long-term US military engagement and put “America First”.
The administration insist the war will end within weeks, the polar opposite of the analysts who have warned that the conflict could stretch on for much longer. Trump’s position is bolstered by Republican lawmakers who have largely coalesced around the president’s pledge, effectively scuttling efforts in Congress to rein in further military excursions sans congressional approval.
The administration has offered shifting justifications for the attacks, including claims about Iran’s missile and nuclear developments, for which they have not provided evidence. They have even claimed that the totality of Iran’s actions since the 1979 Islamic Revolution represented a present threat to the US.

“High-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media deployed a misinformation campaign that wholly undermined your America First platform and sowed pro-war sentiments to encourage a war with Iran” –Kent told Trump in his resignation letter

He Praised Trump’s past military actions, including the assassination of Iran’s General Qassem Soleimani in 2020, as examples of the president knowing “how to decisively apply military power without getting us drawn into never-ending wars”.
However, he said that in Trump’s second term, “high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media deployed a misinformation campaign that wholly undermined your America First platform 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 you should strike now, there was a clear path to a swift victory,” he said.
He further urged Trump to change course, writing: “You hold the cards.”
The US Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, has also been critical of US involvement in protracted conflicts in the Middle East. She has been largely silent since the beginning of the war and did not immediately respond to Kent’s resignation.

He is a ‘Tucker Carlson acolyte who undermines Trump every chance he gets’, said Laura Loomer as Kent’s conscientious objection pit the Gabbard-Vance non-interventionist faction against GOP hawks who back US support for Israel, advocating a hardline on Tehran

The resignation drew immediate praise from prominent ‘America First’ advocates.
Marjorie Taylor Greene called Kent ‘a great America hero,’ while Candace Owens went further, declaring Trump ‘a shameful President’ and calling on US troops to explore conscientious objection, calling Kent a ‘patriot’.
Not everyone was sympathetic, however. Disparaging Kent whom she called a ‘notorious leaker’, pro-Israel activist Laura Loomer, predicted Gabbard would be next to go.
According to Loomer the resignation was timed to overshadow Gabbard’s scheduled testimony before two Congressional intelligence committees.
Loomer weighing into Kent is hardly surprising since she and the counterintelligence director clashed in the past after he suggested she was a Mossad spy. She described him as a ‘Tucker Carlson acolyte who undermines President Trump every chance he gets.’

Following his wife’s death, Kent launched his political career advocating against military intervention in the Middle East. He would run twice as the Republican candidate for Washington’s third congressional district, albeit unsuccessfully

Kent distancing himself from US intervention in the middle east comes is consistent with his views about expansionist policies on entering politics.
A decorated military career spanning two decades in US Special Forces transited to Kent joining the Central Intelligence Agency as a paramilitary officer.
After his wife, Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Shannon Kent, was killed on active duty in Syria in 2019, Kent launched his political career advocating against military intervention in the Middle East.
He ran for Congress in February 2021, in Washington against Republican Rep Jaime Herrera Beutler, one of ten House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump after the January 6 Capitol riot.
Coming through a tough primary on the back of endorsement by Trump, Kent lost the general election against Democrat Marie Perez. In 2024, he lost again to the Democrat in the same district.
He was later invited to join the president’s team when Trump was inaugurated for his second term.
Opposition are not swayed by Kent’s defection from total MAGA commitment.
Two Democrats had opposed Kent’s nomination, pointing to his past support of Trump’s unfounded claims that the US election in 2020 was “stolen” and his characterization of people arrested during the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol as “political prisoners”.
Senator Patty Murray highlighted his past ties to far-right figures, including Nick Fuentes, saying he had a “track record chumming it up with white supremacists.”
A newspaper report in May of 2025, alleged that Kent had pushed intelligence analysts to alter an assessment of the Venezuelan government’s ties to the Tren de Aragua cartel, which contradicted Trump’s claims that the criminal organization was acting in direct coordination with President Nicolas Maduro and his top officials.
Months later January 3, the US military abducted Maduro from his home in Caracas. The former president was extradited to face prosecution in America.