With Kent Gone, Who Is Left?

(Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Every unjust war has a just resignation. During Vietnam, it was Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare John Gardner. During the Iraq War, it was Ambassador John Brady Kiesling. As for the Iran War, it is Director of the National Counterterrorism Center Joe Kent.

Kent resigned Tuesday morning, writing in his letter of resignation, “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 American lobby.”

A former CIA paramilitary officer, Kent was a relic of foreign policy restraint within an increasingly hawkish administration. As war with Iran rages, Americans should ask who in the Trump White House is left to stop the conflict. If personnel is policy, then who is offering the president an offramp? (RELATED: Joe Kent Tells Tucker Carlson Why He Didn’t Think Iran Posed Imminent Threat)

An obvious first-choice is Vice President JD Vance. An Iraq War veteran and skeptic of U.S. foreign policy in the region, Vance told podcaster Tim Dillon on the 2024 campaign trail that “our interest… is not going to war with Iran.” While some reporting suggests the Vice President lobbied behind the scenes against Operation Epic Fury, his public statements thus far (while unusually muted) support the operation. Vance told reporters on Monday: “We have a smart president, whereas in the past, we’ve had dumb presidents, and I trust President Trump to get the job done.”

Vance’s unwillingness or inability to successfully lobby against the Iran War follows Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s ascendance in Trump’s orbit. Not since Henry Kissinger has a secretary of state also served as national security advisor, granting Rubio, and his usually hawkish foreign policy agenda, unmatched exposure to the Oval Office. A staunch supporter of the Iran War, reporting from the New York Times describes a call with the Gang of Eight congressional leaders hours before Trump’s State of the Union address in which Rubio argued for joint U.S.-Israeli military action against Iran, believing that unilateral Israeli or U.S. strikes would expose American bases to Iranian retaliation.

Kent lamented this circular logic –– we must strike Iran to defend American bases against Israeli strikes on Iran –– in his letter of resignation, but it’s unclear who else in the administration will call it out by name. While Rubio recently indicated that fears of Israeli military action spurred Trump’s decision to strike Iran, the White House quickly walked back that claim.

As for Kent’s former boss, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, her past opposition to Middle East wars seems to have gone away. A February 28th photograph of Gabbard (who, in 2020, sold “No War with Iran” t-shirts) in the Situation Room cements her, at least ostensibly, as a key player in the war effort. It appears unlikely she will tender her resignation anytime soon. (RELATED: Never Trumpers And Iran Chicken Hawks All Henpeck In Unison To Smear Joe Kent)

Other key players in the administration are similarly unlikely to pressure Trump to find an offramp. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, who two years ago was a self-proclaimed “recovering neocon,” has relapsed, telling 60 Minutes that the only people who need to be worried are “Iranians that think they’re gonna live.” Even the president’s top negotiators, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, reportedly told Trump on the eve of war that Tehran was using negotiations to stall for time, contradicting Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi, who told Face the Nation that a U.S.-Iran deal was “within our reach.”

When Trump entered office, the battlelines between foreign policy restraint and hawkishness broadly featured Vance/Gabbard/Witkoff/Kent facing off against Rubio, former National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe. Integral to that equation is Charlie Kirk, who last summer called a regime change war with Iran “pathologically insane,” but is no longer here to urge restraint.

Trump’s anti-war coalition vanished, marred by defection, resignation, and assassination. While Kent alone would not have changed the president’s mind, his resignation puts this moment into perspective. Like John Gardner and John Brady Kiesling before him, Kent’s departure leaves lingering questions and gaping holes.

In his letter of resignation, Kent reminded the president that he still has agency, writing “you hold the cards.” But the better question is not who is holding the cards, but who is at the table. Right now it’s a lot of empty chairs in an administration that is decidedly all-in.

Jack Verrill is a Young Voices Contributor from Falmouth, Maine. A Sophomore at the University of Michigan, Jack can be reached at jverrill@umich.edu or on X @jack_verri11

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller.

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