WASHINGTON, D.C.—Director Joe Kent, who was nominated by President Donald J Trump and confirmed by the United States Senate to lead the National Counterterrorism Center, resigned on March 17, effective immediately.
Kent shared in a letter addressed to President Trump that the reason for his resignation is Operation Epic Fury which he says was stated by “pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”
“I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,” Kent wrote.
In his resignation letter, he criticized President Trump directly saying that the president fell for the “trap” of “wars in the Middle East” that “robbed America of the precious lives of our patriots and depleted the wealth and prosperity of our nation.”
Kent alleges that “high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media” influenced President Trump into “pro-war sentiments to encourage a war with Iran”
Kent alleges that President Trump is being deceived by tactics used by Isreal and he further alleges that Israel got the U.S. into the Iraq war.
Kent, in his letter then blames Israel for the death of his late wife Shannon, a Navy cryptologic technician, who was killed by an Islamic State group suicide bomber in northeastern Syria.
“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,” Kent wrote.
Kent concludes his letter telling President Trump, “I pray that you will reflect upon what we are doing in Iran, and who we are doing it for.”
Senator Patty Murray rejoiced at the news of Kent’s resignation: “Good riddance to Joe Kent, a disgraceful white supremacist, but that’s a major public admission that there was NO justification for this war.”
Kent, is a failed two-time Republican candidate for the Third Congressional District in Washington state. He was confirmed by the US Senate on July 30, 2025, as director of the National Counterterrorism Center with opposition from Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell.
Kent led an agency founded in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks and tasked with gathering and analyzing information to help thwart terrorism.
In March 2025, he was one of the individuals in a Signal group chat about U.S. plans for a military strike in Yemen. Classified information was reportedly shared in the conversation. Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, publicized the Signal texts after disclosing he’d somehow been added to the chat.
Kent testified December 11, 2025, an assessment during the House Homeland Security Committee’s annual “Worldwide Threats to the Homeland” hearing that the leading terrorist threat to the United States comes from approximately 18,000 known or suspected terrorists who entered the country during the Biden administration.
According to NCTC analysis, roughly 18,000 individuals with ties to jihadist groups—primarily ISIS and Al-Qaeda—were allowed to enter the United States. Under normal vetting standards, Kent said, these individuals would have been denied entry. He pointed to the late-November attack in Washington, D.C., in which Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, an Afghan evacuee in 2021 under Operation “Allies Welcome” and who resettled in Bellingham, killed one National Guard member—U.S. Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, of Summersville, West Virginia—and wounded another.
Kent on Dec 11 wrote to X that NCTC shared intelligence with federal, state, and local law enforcement to counter potential holiday-season attacks. He cited the foiled ISIS-linked plot in Michigan around Halloween and the D.C. attack as recent examples of the risk posed by individuals admitted under Biden administration policies.
Saed Ali Mirreh,19, of Kent, Washington, was arrested and charged with conspiring to provide material support to ISIS, in connection to that foiled Halloween terrorism plot in Michigan.
Since 1984, United States has officially designated Iran as a State Sponsor of Terrorism. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its Quds Force, provides funding, weapons, training, and operational support to U.S.-designated terrorist groups, including:
- Hezbollah (Lebanon) — Iran’s most important and heavily funded proxy
- Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (Gaza)
- Houthis (Yemen)
- Shia militias in Iraq and Syria (e.g., Kata’ib Hezbollah, which has killed U.S. troops)
Iran has been linked to the following major incidents:
- 1983 Beirut U.S. Embassy bombing (April 18): 17 Americans killed (Hezbollah, Iran-backed).
- 1983 Beirut Marine Barracks bombing (October 23): 241 U.S. service members killed (Hezbollah, Iran-backed) — the deadliest single-day loss for the U.S. Marine Corps since Iwo Jima.
- 1996 Khobar Towers bombing (Saudi Arabia): 19 U.S. airmen killed (Iranian-backed Hezbollah al-Hijaz).
- Iraq War (2003–2011): At least 603 U.S. troops killed by Iranian-backed Shia militias using explosively formed penetrators (EFPs), rockets, and training. This represents roughly 17% of all U.S. deaths in Iraq.
- 2007 Karbala attack: 5 U.S. soldiers killed (direct IRGC involvement alleged by U.S. military).
- January 28, 2024, Tower 22 drone attack (Jordan): 3 U.S. soldiers killed by Kata’ib Hezbollah (Iran proxy)
- October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks (Israel): 43–46 Americans killed (Iran-backed Hamas).
Kent, an Oregon native, grew up in Portland and, at 18, enlisted in the U.S. Army. He had 11 combat deployments and served as a Ranger and Special Forces soldier. He has a degree in strategic studies and defense analysis from Norwich University. In 2020, he served as a foreign affairs advisor to the Trump campaign.
White House Response to Kent Resignation
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt released the following statement to X on the resignation of Joe Kent:
There are many false claims in this letter but let me address one specifically: that “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation.”
This is the same false claim that Democrats and some in the liberal media have been repeating over and over.
As President Trump has clearly and explicitly stated, he had strong and compelling evidence that Iran was going to attack the United States first.
This evidence was compiled from many sources and factors. President Trump would never make the decision to deploy military assets against a foreign adversary in a vacuum.
Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.
The Iranian regime is evil. It proudly killed Americans, waged war against our country, and openly threatened us all the way up to the launch of Operation Epic Fury.
Iran was aggressively expanding their short-range ballistic missiles to combine with their naval assets to give themselves immunity – meaning they would have a degree of a capabilities that would give them immunity to hold us and the rest of the world hostage.
The regime aimed to use those ballistic missiles as a shield to continue achieving their ultimate goal – nuclear weapons.
The President, through his top negotiators, gave the regime every single possible opportunity to abandon this unacceptable course by permanently giving up their nuclear ambitions in exchange for sanctions relief, free nuclear fuel, and potential economic partnerships with our country.
But they would not say yes to peace because obtaining nuclear weapons was their fundamental goal.
President Trump ultimately made the determination that a joint attack with Israel would greatly reduce the risk to American lives that would come from a first strike by the terrorist Iranian regime and address this imminent threat to America’s national security interests.
All of this led to President Trump arriving at the determination that this military operation was necessary for U.S. national security, which is why he launched the massively successful Operation Epic Fury.
The Commander-in-Chief determines what does and does not constitute a threat, because he is the one constitutionally empowered to do so – and because the American people went to the ballot box and entrusted him and him alone to make such final judgments.
And finally, the absurd allegation that President Trump made this decision based on the influence of others, even foreign countries, is both insulting and laughable. President Trump has been remarkably consistent and has said for DECADES that Iran can NEVER possess a nuclear weapon.
As someone who actually witnesses President Trump’s decision-making process on a daily basis, I can attest to the fact that he is always looking to do what’s in the best interest of the United States of America — period.
America First.
Author: Mario Lotmore
