Editorial Note: The following news reports are summaries from original sources. They may also include corrections of Arabic names and political terminology. Comments are in parentheses.

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Director of the US National Counterterrorism Center, Joe Kent, Announced his Resignation, in Opposition to Launching a war Against Iran, 'When it Posed No Imminent Threat to Our Nation'

March 17, 2026

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Director of the US National Counterterrorism Center, Joe Kent, Announced his Resignation, in Opposition to Launching a war Against Iran, 'When it Posed No Imminent Threat to Our Nation,' March 17, 2026

 
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Top Trump counterterrorism official resigns over Iran war

Story by Kathryn Watson

CBS, March 17, 2026

President Trump's director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Joe Kent, announced his immediate resignation Tuesday, citing the decision to begin a war against Iran when "Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation."

Kent, nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate last year, posted his resignation letter on X Tuesday morning, saying he "cannot support sending the next generation off to fight and die in a war that serves no benefit to the American people nor justifies the cost of American lives." 

"I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran," Kent wrote. "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."

He is the highest-ranking Trump administration official to announce his resignation over the Iran war. 

Kent said that before last June, which is when the U.S. and Israel struck Iran's nuclear facilities, the president "understood that 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." Kent knows the cost of war personally — his wife, Shannon, was killed by suicide bomber in Syria in 2019, leaving behind two boys. 

He went on to accuse Israeli officials and some in the media of orchestrating a deception that led Mr. Trump into the war: 

Early in this administration, 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 should you strike now, there was a clear path to a swift victory. This was a lie and is the same tactics the Israelis used to draw us into the disastrous Iraq war that cost the nation the lives of thousands of our best men and women.

"You can reverse course and chart a new path for our nation, or you can allow us to slip further toward decline and chaos," he told the president. "You hold the cards." 

As director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Kent led U.S. counterterrorism and counternarcotics efforts and was the president's principal counterterrorism adviser. 

A retired Green Beret veteran, Kent was confirmed in July 2025, after Mr. Trump nominated him to the post in February 2025. 

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Top Trump counterterrorism official resigns over Iran war

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Top counterterrorism official Kent resigns over Trump’s Iran war, says Iran posed no imminent threat

By Seung Min Kim and DavidKlepper  

Updated at 11:57 AM EDT, March 17, 2026

WASHINGTON (AP) —

Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, announced his resignation on Tuesday, citing his concerns about the justification for military strikes in Iran and saying he “cannot in good conscience” back the Trump administration’s war.

“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 said in a statement posted on social media.

Kent, a former political candidate with connections to right-wing extremists, was confirmed to his post last July on a 52-44 vote. As head of the National Counterterrorism Center, he was in charge of an agency tasked with analyzing and detecting terrorist threats.

His resignation reflects unease within President Donald Trump’s base about the war and shows that questions about the justification for the use of force in Iran extend to at least one senior member of his administration.

The change in personnel at one of the nation’s top counterterrorism offices comes amid heightened concerns about terrorism in the homeland following attacks within the past week at a Michigan synagogue and a Virginia university.

Justification for Iran strikes at heart of resignation

Kent’s decision to resign came down to the reasoning behind the strikes on Iran, or what he said was the lack thereof, he wrote in his resignation letter.

Trump has offered shifting reasons for the strikes and has pushed back on claims that Israel forced the U.S. to act. Earlier this month, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., suggested that the White House believed Israel was determined to act on its own, leaving the Republican president with a “very difficult decision.”

A spokesperson for Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard did not immediately respond to questions about Kent’s resignation. The White House also had no immediate comment.

Democrats strongly opposed Kent’s confirmation, pointing to his past ties to far-right figures and conspiracy theories. But following Kent’s resignation, Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Kent’s concerns about the war in Iran were justified.

“I strongly disagree with many of the positions he has espoused over the years, particularly those that risk politicizing our intelligence community,” Warner said. “But on this point, he is right: There was no credible evidence of an imminent threat from Iran that would justify rushing the United States into another war of choice in the Middle East.”

Johnson, though, pushed back on Kent’s claims that Iran posed no imminent threat when asked about the resignation at a press conference on Tuesday.

“I got all the briefings. We all understood that there was clearly an imminent threat that Iran was very close to the enrichment of nuclear capability and they were building missiles at a pace no one in the region could keep up with,” Johnson said.

Johnson said he is convinced that if Trump had waited “we would have mass casualties of Americans, service members and others, and our installation would have been dramatically damaged.”

Departure comes amid heightened terror concern

Kent is leaving the Trump administration as three recent acts of violence have raised concerns about threats to the homeland.

In New York City, two men who federal authorities say were inspired by the Islamic State group took powerful homemade bombs to a far-right protest outside the mayoral mansion.

And in Virginia, a man previously imprisoned on a terrorism conviction was heard yelling “Allahu akbar,” an Arabic phrase meaning “God is the greatest,” before opening fire in a university classroom in an attack that officials said ended when he was killed by students.

Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and FBI Director Kash Patel are scheduled to testify before lawmakers later this week about threats facing the U.S., an annual hearing that this year is likely to be taken up by questions about the Iran war and in particular the revelation that outdated intelligence likely led to the U.S. firing a missile that hit an elementary school in Iran and killed more than 165 people.

A veteran and former Congresswoman from Hawaii, Gabbard has in the past criticized talk of military strikes in Iran. Six years ago she said that “an all out war with Iran would make the wars that we’ve seen in Iraq and Afghanistan look like a picnic. It will be far more costly in lives, American lives, and American taxpayer dollars — and all towards accomplishing what goal? What objective?”

Gabbard’s office did not respond when asked if Gabbard supported the strikes, and she has not posted about Iran on her social media accounts since the strikes began last month.

A popular figure among Trump supporters

Kent’s background in the military and his personal story of loss and sacrifice made him a leading figure when it came to national security among Trump supporters.

Before entering Trump’s administration, Kent ran two unsuccessful campaigns for Congress in Washington state. He also served in the military, seeing combat in 11 deployments as a Green Beret before retiring from Special Forces to join the CIA. He also endured tragedy: His wife, Shannon, a Navy cryptologist, was killed by a suicide bomber in 2019 while fighting the Islamic State group in Syria, leaving him to raise their two young sons alone. Kent, 45, has since remarried.

During the United States’ chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, Kent criticized what he said was a misguided desire for nation building by some in Washington, D.C.

“It speaks to our hubris,” Kent told reporters while campaigning for Congress. “For us not to have learned from all this just shows that there are people making money and making their careers at the other end of it. They’ve been doing it on the backs and dead bodies of U.S. soldiers.”

During his 2022 congressional campaign, Kent paid Graham Jorgensen, a member of the far-right military group the Proud Boys, for consulting work. He also worked closely with Joey Gibson, the founder of the Christian nationalist group Patriot Prayer, and attracted support from a variety of far-right figures.

Early during his first campaign, Kent acknowledged that a political consultant set up a call that was joined by Nick Fuentes, a popular right-wing influencer who has said that Jews are holding the U.S. “hostage” and once proclaimed that “Hitler was awesome, Hitler was right.”

During his Senate confirmation hearing, Kent also refused to distance himself from a conspiracy theory that federal agents instigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol, as well as false claims that Trump won the 2020 election over Democrat Joe Biden.

Kent later disavowed those ties and stated that he rejected all “racism and bigotry.”

Democrats also grilled Kent on his participation in a group chat on Signal that was used by Trump’s national security team to discuss sensitive military plans.

Still, Republicans praised Kent’s counterterrorism qualifications, pointing to his military and intelligence experience.

Sen. Tom Cotton, the GOP chair of the intelligence committee, said in a floor speech that Kent had “dedicated his career to fighting terrorism and keeping Americans safe.”

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Associated Press writers Kevin Freking and Brian Slodysko contributed to this report.

Seung Min Kim covers the White House for The Associated Press. She joined the AP in 2022 and is based in Washington. Kim is also a political analyst for CNN.

Top counterterrorism official Joe Kent resigns over Trump's Iran war | AP News

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