US counterterrorism chief resigns, saying Iran ‘posed no threat’

The head of the National Counterterrorism Center resigned on Tuesday, becoming the first and most senior member of US President Donald Trump's administration to resign over the war in Iran, saying Tehran posed no imminent threat to the United States.

"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 lobby," Joseph Kent wrote in a letter to Trump posted on X.

Some experts have said an imminent threat would be required for the United States to launch a war under current law.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence also did not immediately respond.

Intelligence officials were caught off guard by the news.

Kent was a staunch Trump supporter, and his resignation marks the first high-profile departure of the president’s second term over a major policy issue.

Kent is close with Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who has kept a low profile since the Iran war began.

Gabbard has not issued any public statements and has only appeared in public during the dignified transfer of American soldiers killed earlier this month during the conflict with Iran.

After the initial wave of strikes against Iran, Trump cited an “imminent threat” to the US, and administration officials said the US acted in response to potential preemptive attacks by Iran on forces in the region — claims that were contradicted in Pentagon briefings to Capitol Hill, where defense officials said Iran was not planning to attack unless struck first.

More from the resignation letter

In the resignation letter attached to the social media post, Joseph Kent said he supported “the values and the foreign policies” Trump had campaigned on in 2016, 2020 and 2024, and which he said he had enacted in his first term.

Kent said that in his first term, Trump had “understood better than any modern president how to decisively apply military power without getting us drawn into never-ending wars”.

But early in his second term, he said, “high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media deployed a misinformation campaign that wholly undermined your America First platform and sowed pro-war sentiments to encourage a war with Iran”.

“This echo chamber was used to deceive you into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States, and that you should strike now, there was a clear path to a swift victory,” he added.

“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 has extensive experience in counterterrorism and the military — he served 11 combat tours over a 20-year career in the Army before retiring to become a CIA officer — and has personal experience as a Gold Star spouse. His first wife, Shannon, was killed in a 2019 suicide bombing in Syria while serving as a Navy cryptologist.

Trump’s rationale for attacking the Iranian regime has whipsawed from protecting the demonstrators who protested in the streets of Iran in January to defending the US against the risk of Iran building nuclear and long-range weapons and eliminating a regime that’s backed terrorist groups’ killing Americans for decades. He’s called for the Iranian people to take control of their country even as top officials say the war is not about regime change.