Who is Joe Kent? Trump counterterrorism admin, veteran resigns over Iran war

Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, announced his resignation Tuesday, saying he "cannot in good conscience" back the Trump administration’s war in Iran.

Joe Kent resignation

What they're saying:

Kent explained he supported Trump’s values and foreign policies that the president campaigned on, but claimed that the president was recently "deceived" by Israel into believing that Iran posed a threat to the U.S. and that action was necessary. 

"This was a lie and is the same tactic the Israelis used to draw us into the disastrous Iraq war that cost our nation the lives of thousands of our best men and women. We cannot make this mistake again," Kent said. 

"As a veteran who deployed to combat 11 times and as a Gold Star husband who lost my belived 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 nor justifies the cost of American lives."

The other side:

Later on Tuesday, the president said Joe Kent was a "nice guy" but "I always thought" he was "very weak on security."

Trump said that Kent leaving his post was "a good thing" since he disagreed with Kent’s assessment on the threat from Iran. "We don’t want those people," he said.

White House Press Secretary, Katoline Leavitt, also responded on social media later Tuesday morning to the allegations made in Kent’s resignation letter, saying much of what he said were "false claims." 

"There are many false claims in this letter but let me address one specifically: that "Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation," she wrote.

"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," her statement continued, in part.

You can read the full statement here. 

Who is Joe Kent? 

Big picture view:

Kent is a veteran, politician, and now-former director of the National Counterterrorism Center. As head of the National Counterterrorism Center, Kent was in charge of an agency tasked with analyzing and detecting terrorist threats.

Dig deeper:

He was confirmed to that post last July on a 52-44 vote, and was met with strong opposition from Democrats over past ties to far-right figures and conspiracy theories. 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, The Associated Press reported. 

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, a Republican, won the 2020 election over Democrat Joe Biden.

Political and military background

Big picture view:

Before entering President Donald Trump's administration, Kent ran two unsuccessful campaigns for Congress in Washington state. He also served in the military, seeing 11 deployments as a Green Beret, followed by work at the CIA.

Personal life

Dig deeper:

Kent’s wife was killed in action in 2019 in a suicide bombing in Syria. The couple had two boys together.