The U.S. counterterrorism official who resigned Tuesday had been a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump through his 2020 election defeat, the Jan. 6 riots and years of conservative media advocacy and failed congressional bids.
But Trump’s war in Iran and his alliance with Israel against the Islamic clerics who led the Tehran government were too much for Joe Kent.
Resigning as director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, Kent said Iran
“posed no imminent threat to our nation,” and he asserted that “we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”
A 45-year-old special forces combat veteran with ties to right-wing extremists, Kent was considered as much of a loyalist as Trump could have in the government's top counterterrorism post.
Here's what to know about Kent and his departure from the administration.
Kent's stated reasons for resigning run counter to Trump's insistence that Iran was poised to attack the U.S.
On Feb. 28, the day the U.S. and Israel launched the first airstrikes, Trump said this about Iran: “Its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas, and our allies throughout the world.”
In a resignation letter to Trump, Kent countered that “high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media deployed a misinformation campaign ... to encourage a war with Iran.”
His reference to Israel and claims about Jewish Americans' political influence highlight Kent's previous ties to antisemitism and right-wing extremism. It's an antisemitic trope to suggest Jewish Americans have disproportionate control of media narratives.
During his Senate confirmation hearings, Kent acknowledged that during one of his two failed congressional campaigns a political consultant set up a call joined by Nick Fuentes. A popular right-wing influencer, Fuentes has said that Jews are holding the U.S. “hostage” and once proclaimed that “Hitler was awesome, Hitler was right.”
During his 2022 House campaign, Kent paid Graham Jorgensen, a member of the far-right military group the Proud Boys, for consulting work. He also worked closely with Joey Gibson, the founder of the Christian nationalist group Patriot Prayer, and attracted support from a variety of far-right figures.
Before running for Congress, Kent echoed a conspiracy theory that federal agents had somehow instigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol, as well as false claims that Trump won the 2020 election over President Joe Biden. Kent has called for the impeachment of Biden and an investigation into the 2020 election. He’s also called for defunding the FBI after the search at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home for classified documents.
Kent later disavowed some of his right-wing ties and said he rejected all “racism and bigotry.” During his Senate hearings, he declined to distance himself from his 2020 election denialism.
Kent was confirmed in July on a 52-44 Senate vote that fell almost entirely along party lines. Every Democrat opposed his nomination, citing his right-wing ties. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., was the lone GOP vote against Kent’s confirmation.
In his post, Kent led an intelligence agency that was created after the 9/11 attacks to analyze and detect terrorist threats. Among other tasks, the agency maintains the U.S. government’s list of known and suspected terrorists.
Before his confirmation, Kent worked as chief of staff for Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. A former Green Beret, Kent was deployed to 11 combat missions, mostly in Iraq, during 20 years in the Army.
After his retirement in 2018, he became a paramilitary officer with the CIA and served as a counterterrorism adviser to Trump’s 2020 presidential reelection campaign. He was a regular on conservative cable shows and podcasts before and during his 2022 and 2024 congressional bids.
Kent's first wife, Shannon Smith, was a Navy cryptologist killed by a suicide bomber in 2019 while fighting the Islamic State group in Syria.
After Smith's death, Kent spoke out against U.S. intervention around the world.
“That is why I have a skepticism of our federal government,” he said of his wife's death, adding that she died because “Republicans and Democrats consistently lied to the American people to keep us engaged in wars abroad.”
During the U.S.’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, Kent tore into the defense industry and “permanent ruling class” in Washington. He suggested some proponents of foreign nation building were naïve, while others were driven by far more cynical motives.
“It speaks to our hubris,” Kent told reporters while campaigning for Congress. “For us not to have learned from all this just shows that there are people making money and making their careers at the other end of it. They’ve been doing it on the backs and dead bodies of U.S. soldiers.”
Trump was effusive when he nominated Kent in February 2025.
“Joe will help us keep America safe by eradicating all terrorism, from the jihadists around the World, to the cartels in our backyard,” Trump said on social media.
At his Senate confirmation hearings, Kent focused most heavily on drug cartels in Latin America — not the Middle East.
“President Trump is committed to identifying these cartels and these violent gang members and making sure that we locate them and that we get them out of our country,” Kent told Senate Intelligence Committee members.
As Gabbard’s chief of staff, Kent told an intelligence analyst to revise an assessment of the relationship between the Venezuelan government and a transnational gang. The revisions supported Trump’s assertions that members of the gang could be removed under the Alien Enemies Act, which has typically been considered a wartime law.
During his confirmation hearing, Democratic senators peppered Kent with questions about his participation in a group chat on Signal that was used by Trump’s national security team to discuss sensitive military plans.
The Signal chat, which mistakenly included a journalist at The Atlantic magazine, showed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth providing the exact timings of warplane launches and when bombs would drop in attacks against Yemen's Houthis in March 2025. The disclosure of typically classified information came before the men and women flying those attacks were airborne.
It became an embarrassing flashpoint for the administration, though Hegseth, Kent and others faced no consequences from the president.
—- Associated Press reporter Brian Slodysko contributed from Washington. Barrow reported from Atlanta.
