Translated with AI
Joe Kent, the head of the US National Counterterrorism Center in the Donald Trump administration, resigned in protest against the war with Iran. This was announced in a statement addressed to the US president.
In his statement, Joe Kent said that after much consideration, he had decided to step down as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, effective today.
He emphasized that he could not "in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran." He claimed that Iran posed no immediate threat to the United States, and that the war itself, he claimed, was started under pressure from Israel and its influential lobby in the US.
Kent noted that he supported the values and foreign policy that Donald Trump promoted during the 2016, 2020, and 2024 election campaigns, and implemented during his first term. He stated that, in his opinion, before June 2025, the president understood that the wars in the Middle East were a "trap" that cost the US military lives and undermined the country's prosperity.
The statement also stated that during his first term, Trump, in Kent's view, demonstrated the ability to decisively use military force without dragging the country into protracted conflicts. He cited the assassination of Qasem Soleimani and the fight against ISIS as examples.
Kent argues that early in the current administration, senior Israeli officials and influential American media figures launched a disinformation campaign that he says undermined the "America First" agenda and fostered a pro-war sentiment aimed at drawing the US into a war with Iran.
According to him, this information campaign was used to convince the country's leadership of an imminent threat from Iran and the possibility of a quick victory in the event of an attack. Kent called this a lie and asserted that similar tactics had been used previously to draw the US into the Iraq War, which he described as catastrophic.
In the statement, Kent also said that as an 11-time combat veteran who lost his wife, Shannon, in a war he attributes to Israel's actions, he cannot support sending a new generation of Americans to a war that does not benefit the country.
In conclusion, he called on the president to reconsider US actions toward Iran, emphasizing that the head of state has the opportunity to change course or allow the situation to deteriorate further. Kent also noted that it had been an honor to serve in the administration and the country.
Joe Kent's resignation was the first such high-profile one in the United States amid the conflict in the Middle East.
