A top official in the Trump administration abruptly resigned on Tuesday over his opposition to the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran, noting that President Donald Trump repeatedly ran on no new Middle East wars without provocation. Joe Kent, who was director of the National Counterterrorism Center, posted a copy of his resignation letter to the president online.
“After much reflection, I have decided to resign from my position as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, effective today,” he wrote.
“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,” he continued.
“It has been an honor serving under @POTUS and @DNIGabbard and leading the professionals at NCTC,” Kent concluded.
Kent was a strong supporter of Trump, and his resignation marks the first high-profile departure during the president’s second term due to a major policy issue.
Lawmakers and experts have expressed doubts about the intelligence the president used to justify the war, and the departure of a key intelligence official will increase scrutiny of the administration’s case.
After the initial wave of strikes against Iran, Trump cited an “imminent threat” to the US. Administration officials claimed that the US acted in response to potential preemptive attacks by Iran on forces in the region.
However, these claims were contradicted in Pentagon briefings to Capitol Hill, where defense officials stated that Iran was not planning to attack unless provoked.
“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 in what seems like a reference to Operation Midnight Hammer, a series of U.S. strikes in June 2025 on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Kent wrote that in his first term, Trump understood how to “decisively apply military power without getting us drawn into never-ending wars,” citing the killing of former Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.
Kent attributed the misjudgment about the threat posed by Iran to misleading information from Israeli officials and the media.
“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 victory,” he wrote in his resignation letter. “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 is leaving an important position at an organization responsible for monitoring intelligence related to long-established terrorist groups in the Middle East, as well as drug cartels and international gangs. Prior to taking on this role, he served as a top aide to Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence.
Kent has extensive experience in counterterrorism and the military; he completed 11 combat tours during a 20-year career in the Army before retiring to become a CIA officer. He also has personal experience as a Gold Star spouse, as his first wife, Shannon, was killed in a suicide bombing in Syria in 2019 while serving as a Navy cryptologist, CNN reported.
Trump’s justification for targeting the Iranian regime has shifted between protecting demonstrators who protested in Iran back in January and defending the U.S. against the dangers posed by Iran potentially developing nuclear and long-range weapons.
He has also cited the need to eliminate a regime that has supported terrorist groups responsible for killing Americans for decades. While he has urged the Iranian people to take control of their country, top officials insist that the war is not aimed at regime change.