Who is Joe Kent, top counterterror official who resigned over Iran War?

Joe Kent, one of the Trump administration’s top intelligence officials, resigned on Tuesday over the U.S. military’s ongoing operations against Iran. 

“I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran,” Kent wrote in his resignation letter addressed to President Trump, which he shared on social media. 

“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,” he continued.

Kent is the first member of the Trump administration to resign over this conflict after the U.S. and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran at the end of February. 

As the head of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), Kent was a close aide to Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard. 

Here’s what to know about the top intelligence official:

A former Green Beret soldier and CIA paramilitary officer, Kent cited his years of military service in his resignation letter on Tuesday. 

The Trump official joined the Army when he was 17 years old, rising to the rank of chief warrant officer in the Green Berets. He received six bronze stars for his 11 combat tours in Iraq, Yemen and North Africa. 

Kent’s wife, Shannon Smith, died during a 2019 suicide bombing in Syria that killed a total of 18 people. Smith was a cryptologist with the Navy during combat operations against ISIS in the country. 

“As a veteran who deployed to combat 11 times and as a Gold Star husband who lost my beloved wife Shannon in a war manufactured by Israel, I cannot support sending the next generation off to fight and die in a war that serves no benefit to the American people nor justifies the cost of American lives,” he wrote.

Political involvement

Following the death of his wife, Kent launched two unsuccessful bids for Congress representing Washington, losing two challenges to Rep. Marie Glusenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) in 2022 and 2024. 

The Republican candidate’s 2022 campaign received significant criticism over its alleged ties to white nationalist groups. The Associated Press reported on Kent’s relationship with Christian nationalist leaders and his campaign’s decision to employ a member of the far-right Proud Boys group as a consultant.

Trump nominated Kent to become the next director of the NCTC, and he was confirmed by the Senate in July 2025 by a 52-44 vote. Prior to assuming this new leadership role, Kent served as Gabbard’s chief of staff. 

Allegations of promoting ‘political violence’

In addition to his past associations with Christian nationalist groups, Kent had previously received criticism for backing Trump’s false claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election and defended rioters at the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. 

Kent attended the “Justice for J6 rally” and he upheld claims that the assault on the legislative building had been led by federal agents. 

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and other Democrats slammed the Trump nominee for these past statements ahead of the Senate’s vote last July to confirm Kent to lead the NCTC. 

“At a time when domestic violent extremism is one of the fastest-growing threats to the homeland, we are being asked to put someone in charge of counterterrorism who has aligned himself with political violence, promoted falsehoods that undermine our democracy and tried to twist intelligence to serve a political agenda,” Warner said in a speech on the Senate floor.

Warner responded to Kent’s resignation on Tuesday, reiterating his concerns with the counterintelligence official’s “deeply troubling” record.

“I strongly disagree with many of the positions he has espoused over the years, particularly those that risk politicizing our intelligence community,” the senator wrote in a statement. “But on this point, he is right: There was no credible evidence of an imminent threat from Iran that would justify rushing the United States into another war of choice in the Middle East.”

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