Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, resigned Tuesday, citing the ongoing war in Iran.
He said he could not “in good conscience” continue to do his job while the U.S. waged war in the Middle East, a war he said was out of step with President Trump’s America First agenda.
“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,” Mr. Kent said in a statement.
In a letter to Mr. Trump, he said that he still supports the values that the president campaigned on in 2016, 2020 and 2024.
“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,” he said.
Mr. Kent said that in the president’s first term, Mr. Trump “understood better than any modern president” how to “decisively apply military power without getting us drawn into never-ending wars.”
But this administration does not reflect this, he said, citing “high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media” who 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,” Mr. Kent said. “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.
He also told the president that it is not too late to reverse course rather than allow the U.S. to “slip further toward decline and chaos.”
Mr. Kent was confirmed in his role in July 2025.
The Washington Times reached out to the White House for comment.
