Top Trump counterterrorism official Joe Kent resigns over Iran, saying it “posed no imminent threat to our nation”

President Trump’s director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Joe Kent, announced his immediate resignation Tuesday, citing the decision to begin a war against Iran when “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation.”

Kent, nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate last year, posted his resignation letter on X Tuesday morning. He claimed the war was “manufactured” by Israel. 

“I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran,” Kent wrote in his resignation letter addressed to the president and posted to X. “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 is the highest-ranking Trump administration official to announce his resignation over the Iran war. As director of the National Counterterrorism Center, he led U.S. counterterrorism and counternarcotics efforts and was the president’s principal counterterrorism adviser. 

A retired Green Beret veteran, Kent was confirmed in July 2025, after Mr. Trump nominated him to the post in February 2025. 

This is a developing story and will be updated.