The director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Joe Kent, announced his resignation on Tuesday, saying he could not support the Trump administration’s war in Iran.
Kent said he stepped down after concluding that the military campaign lacked sufficient justification.
“I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran,” he said in a statement posted on social media, adding that Iran “posed no imminent threat to our nation.”
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. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this… pic.twitter.com/prtu86DpEr
— Joe Kent (@joekent16jan19) March 17, 2026
He also claimed the United States entered the conflict under pressure from Israel and its supporters, a claim the administration has rejected.
Kent, who was confirmed to the post last July, led the center responsible for analyzing and coordinating intelligence on terrorist threats.
President Donald Trump brushed aside Kent’s resignation, casting him as being “weak on security.”
There are many false claims in this letter but let me address one specifically: that “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation.”
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… https://t.co/AC8M5L8lye
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) March 17, 2026
“I always thought he was a nice guy, but I always thought he was weak on security, very weak,” Trump said at the White House.
“When I read his statement, I realized it’s a good thing that he’s out, because he said Iran is not a threat. … Every country realized what a threat Iran was.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Levitt pushed back at the claims made in Kent’s post.
Muhammad Luqman is Associate Editor at Views News Now. He writes on wide-ranging issues including economy, South Asia, the Middle East, agriculture, economy and innovation. Luqman has worked some of the leading news organizations and won acclaim for his original and research-based works.
Iftikhar Ali is a veteran Pakistani journalist, former president of UN Correspondents Association, and a recipient of the Pride of Performance civil award
