Joe Kent, the former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, resigned his post and publicly accused Israel and its American lobbying network of pressuring President Donald Trump into launching a war against Iran — a conflict Kent says poses no genuine threat to the United States.
Kent delivered his resignation letter on Tuesday and followed it with a sit-down interview alongside Tucker Carlson, who said he had spent the previous 24 hours with the former intelligence official before they sat down to speak.
In his resignation letter, Kent stated plainly that Iran presented no imminent threat to America at the time the conflict began. He wrote that the war was initiated “due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,” adding: “I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war.”
Carlson opened the interview by airing a 2024 conversation he had previously recorded with Kent, in which Kent predicted the war would go poorly. Carlson then asked Kent to elaborate on the claims in his resignation letter.
Kent told Carlson that Trump should have pursued a back-channel communication strategy with Iran rather than entering the conflict. He argued that Israel should have been left to fight on its own.
“I think there’s a potential there where we could have done several different things, we could have simply said to the Israelis ‘no you will not, and if you do, we will take something away from you,’” Kent said during the interview.
Kent also alleged that Israeli officials spread false information. “Israeli officials… will say all kind of things that simply isn’t true,” he said, noting that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to have had considerable access to the White House — more, Kent suggested, than he and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard had.
Kent charged that internal dissent within the Trump administration was suppressed in the lead-up to the war. Without identifying specific individuals, he said: “Key decision makers were not allowed to express their opinions. There wasn’t a robust debate,” contrasting that environment with what he described as a more open process before Operation Midnight Hammer, last year’s strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
Kent pointed to public statements by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson as confirmation that Israel drove the decision to go to war — one that Kent said predictably triggered Iranian retaliation. “This speaks to the broader issue: who is in charge of our policy in the Middle East? Who is in charge of when we decide to go to war or not?” he said.
Kent stated that America’s alliance with Israel was not the issue, but drew a firm line on the terms of that partnership. “It’s fine that we offer defense to Israel, but when we’re providing the means of defense, we get to dictate the terms of when they go on the offensive, otherwise they stand to lose that relationship,” he said.
He added: “The Israelis felt emboldened that no matter what they did, they could take this action and we would just have to react.”
In his resignation letter, Kent addressed Trump directly, invoking language from Trump’s own non-interventionist campaign platform. “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 wrote.
“The time for bold action is now. You can reverse course and chart a new path for our nation, or you can allow us to slip further toward decline and chaos. You hold the cards.”
Trump dismissed Kent’s arguments on Tuesday. When asked about the resignation, the president called it “a good thing that [Kent’s] out” and described Kent as “very weak on security.”
Kent served under Gabbard and is considered a close ally of Vice President JD Vance. Both Vance and Gabbard have previously cautioned against new military entanglements in the Middle East. Gabbard is reported to be losing standing within Trump’s inner circle following the president’s decision to launch the war.
The resignation has exposed a deepening fracture within the Republican Party between non-interventionist America First voices and hawkish Republicans who back stronger U.S. support for Israel.
