Joe Kent, director of the US National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), resigned Tuesday, saying he could not “in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran” after President Donald Trump ordered military action. In a post on X, Kent argued Iran posed no imminent threat and said the United States had been pushed into the conflict by pressure from Israel and its American supporters.
A 45-year-old special forces veteran with two decades of military service, Kent thanked Trump and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard for the opportunity to serve, and urged reflection in a resignation letter to the president: “You can reverse course and chart a new path for our nation, or you can allow us to slip further towards decline and chaos. You hold the cards.”
Kent is a close ally of Gabbard and previously served as her acting chief of staff. In announcing his departure, he claimed “high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media deployed a misinformation campaign … to encourage a war with Iran.” That assertion, and his reference to Jewish-American influence over media, drew scrutiny because it echoes an antisemitic trope and because Kent has documented ties to right-wing extremists.
During his two unsuccessful runs for Congress, Kent hired controversial figures: he employed Graham Jorgensen, associated with the Proud Boys, as a consultant in 2022, and has ties to Joey Gibson, founder of the Christian nationalist group Patriot Prayer. At his Senate confirmation hearing for the NCTC job, Kent acknowledged a consultant had arranged a call with far-right influencer Nick Fuentes, an avowed white nationalist and Holocaust denier who dined privately with Trump in 2022.
Before his government service, Kent promoted conspiracy theories, including the claim that federal agents instigated the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack and the false assertion that Trump — not Joe Biden — won the 2020 election. Although he has disavowed some of his past associations and said he rejects “racism and bigotry,” he has continued to repeat the election and January 6 conspiracies. Prior to resigning, he had been seen as one of the highest-ranking Trump loyalists within government ranks.
After leaving the military in 2018, Kent worked as a paramilitary officer for the CIA. He appeared often on conservative media and served as a counterterrorism adviser to Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign. His skepticism of US interventionism deepened after his first wife, Navy cryptologist Shannon Smith, was killed by an Islamic State suicide bomber in Syria in 2019; Kent has said her death reinforced his view that politicians lie to keep the US engaged in foreign wars.
Kent later focused on combating drug cartels. Under Gabbard, he played a role in reshaping intelligence analyses to support deportations of South American gang members under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act by drawing links between smugglers and then-Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. Trump highlighted Kent’s work on both jihadist threats and cartel-related security when nominating him as NCTC director in February 2025. The NCTC, created after 9/11, analyzes terrorist threats and maintains the US government’s terrorist watch lists.
Trump, speaking at a White House Saint Patrick’s Day reception, said he had read Kent’s resignation letter but suggested he did not know him well and called him “weak on security, very weak on security.”
Edited by: Dmytro Hubenko