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Joe Kent, the Senate-confirmed director of the National Counterterrorism Center, resigned on Tuesday because he could not “in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran.” It is the highest-profile protest resignation of the second Trump administration—during which there has been much to protest-resign over—and exposes the rift within MAGA over President Donald Trump’s keenness for warmaking.

Such a headline-grabbing move from an ideological ally of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, under whom Kent served, is welcome news to the war’s opponents. It should also be welcome news that Joe Kent is no longer serving in the United States government. Kent has a long history of conspiratorial thinking that has twice cost him winnable congressional races.

That’s on full display in his resignation letter. While it arrives at a conclusion held by a majority of Americans—what, exactly, is the point of this war?—the letter manages to absolve Trump of agency in his decision to strike. It suggests Trump had become changed, from the anti-war politician he once was to a manipulee of Israel. But he’s not the latter now, and he never was the former. Greenlighting the Iran war was a decision Trump made, free-thinkingly, based on how he’s always been, in pursuit of his own legacy.

Kent’s mistaken impression of Trump can maybe be explained a bit by his background. He is a former Green Beret who served 11 tours of duty, mostly in Iraq. His wife, who was in the Navy, was killed by a suicide bomber in 2019 during the war against the Islamic State. After the tragedy, Kent........

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