Top counterterrorism official resigns in protest of US war against Iran

The nation’s top counterterrorism official resigned Tuesday in protest of the U.S. war against Iran, saying Tehran posed no imminent threat.

Joe Kent said in a post on X, "After much reflection, I have decided to resign from my position as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, effective today." 

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

In a pointed letter to President Donald Trump, Kent said the war marked a departure from the administration’s earlier approach to avoiding prolonged conflicts in the Middle East.

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"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, seemingly referring 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. 

Prior to the current conflict known as Operation Epic Fury, Kent claimed that "high-ranking Israeli officials" and members of the media had deployed a "misinformation campaign" to "undermine" America First. 

"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 an clear path to swift victory," Kent said. 

The National Counterterrorism Center director reports directly to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and is a top five intelligence community post in any administration. 

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Gabbard, a longtime critic of regime change operations, has been quiet since the Iran conflict. Her office could not immediately be reached for comment on Kent's resignation. 

She recently hired Dan Caldwell, a prominent voice for restraint-minded foreign policy, as an advisor to senior intelligence officials, a source familiar with the move confirmed to Fox News Digital. 

Caldwell was fired from his role as a senior advisor to War Secretary Pete Hegseth during a leak investigation that has not produced public results. 

A former Army Green Beret and CIA paramilitary officer with 11 combat deployments, Kent ran for Congress unsuccessfully twice with Trump's backing in the state of Washington before being appointed to his role as counterterrorism chief. 

Kent’s late wife, Shannon, was a Navy intelligence officer killed in 2019 in an ISIS bombing in Syria. 

Kent wrote on X Tuesday, "As a veteran who deployed to combat 11 times and as a Gold Star husband who lost my wife Shannon in a war manufactured by Israel, I cannot support sending the next generation to fight and die in a war that serves no benefit to the American people or justifies the cost of American lives."

The White House could not immediately be reached for comment on Kent's resignation. 

Taylor Budowich, who departed his role as Trump's deputy chief of staff in September 2025, claimed on X that Kent was a "crazed egomaniac who was often at the center of national security leaks, while rarely (never?) producing any actual work."

"This isn’t some principled resignation — he just wanted to make a splash before getting canned," Budowich wrote on X Tuesday. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson said Kent was "clearly wrong." 

"I got all the briefings," Johnson told reporters Tuesday. "We all understood 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 that no one in the region could keep up with."

Kent’s tenure drew sharp opposition from Democrats during his confirmation, largely over his past political statements and associations, including reported contacts with figures tied to the Jan. 6, 2021, movement and his alignment with election denial rhetoric during his congressional campaigns, but supporters pointed to his extensive combat and intelligence experience. 

Operation Epic Fury is now in its third week, with sustained air and missile exchanges across the region, including Iranian retaliatory strikes against U.S. forces, Israel, and Gulf states. 

While the Trump administration initially signaled the operation could last four to six weeks, officials have acknowledged the timeline could stretch longer as Iran continues to resist and regional tensions remain high.