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Joe Kent: The Counterterrorism Chief Who Resigned Over the War

Joe Kent is the most important witness in this investigation. He was not a critic from outside. He was a retired U.S. Army Special Forces (Green Beret) soldier with eleven combat deployments, a former CIA officer, and President Trump's own choice to run the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), the agency that tracks threats to Americans. On March 17, 2026, seventeen days into the second war on Iran, he resigned and put in writing what many Americans suspected: that Iran was no imminent threat and that the United States went to war because of pressure from Israel and its lobby.

The resignation letter, March 17, 2026​

"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."

"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."

"This echo chamber was used to deceive you into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States."

(Al Jazeera, March 17, 2026; Al Jazeera explainer, March 18; CNN; NPR). Later summaries quote him saying that "the narrative & agenda spun by a foreign government- Israel, won the argument & forced us into this war," and that the intelligence community, including the CIA, agreed Iran was not developing a nuclear weapon (@MyTardis_ on X, September 21, 2026; Grok summary, September 25, 2026). Al Majalla summarized his position as the view that the President was "deceived" by Israel (Al Majalla).

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency did not treat his letter as fringe. It wrote that "some of Kent's allegations appeared to echo what even some senior Trump administration officials have suggested: that Israeli officials manipulated Trump into believing both that Iran was a present danger to the United States, and that there was a swift path to victory" (JTA, March 17, 2026).

How the White House answered​

The White House called the idea that the President "made this decision based on the influence of others, even foreign countries" both "insulting and laughable," and said he had "strong and compelling evidence that Iran was going to attack the United States first" (Mediaite). That evidence has never been made public, and the Pentagon's own briefers had told Congress the opposite two weeks earlier (see Pentagon told Congress: no first strike). The President said Kent was "weak on security" and "it's a good thing that he's out, because he said that Iran was not a threat. Iran was a threat." Critics accused Kent of antisemitism for naming Israel's influence (Al Jazeera explainer). None of the attacks answered his argument.

Shut out before the war​

Kent's warnings were not new. In June 2025 an administration official told The Grayzone that officials "who have questioned the logic of attacking Iran, such as Director of Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and her deputy, former CIA officer and director for the National Counter-Terrorism Center Joe Kent, have been excluded from meetings by White House Chief of Staff Suzie Wiles" (as pasted by @SMO_VZ on X, June 21, 2025).

The Tucker Carlson interview: Charlie Kirk​

Two days after resigning, Kent told Tucker Carlson about the last time he saw Charlie Kirk:

"The last time I saw Charlie Kirk on this Earth was in June, in the West Wing. He looked me in the eye and said — Joe, stop us from getting into a war with Iran."

"One of President Trump's closest advisors was vocally advocating against war with Iran and for rethinking our relationship with Israel. And then he's suddenly publicly assassinated and we're not allowed to ask any questions about that?"

"The investigation I was part of at the National Counterterrorism Center — we were stopped from continuing to investigate."

"Charlie was under a lot of pressure from a lot of pro-Israel donors. That's in the texts that have been made public."

(Brian Allen on X, March 19, 2026, video). Journalist Ron Filipkowski summarized: Kent "suggests that Israel may have been behind Kirk getting killed and says the National Counterterrorism unit was blocked from investigating an Israel connection by the FBI" (Filipkowski on X, March 19, 2026). See Charlie Kirk and the war and the investigation that was stopped.

When Kent told radio host Mark Levin he had leads on a foreign link but would not name the country, pro-Israel activist Laura Loomer replied that "he made it up" (Loomer on X, March 24, 2026). Commentator Max Abrahms suggested Carlson "served as a backchannel between Joe Kent and Iran" (captured search summary). The pattern of the attacks on Kent is the same as on other dissenters: questions about loyalty, not answers to evidence.

Going Underground, September 2026: "an echo chamber"​

Six months later, on Afshin Rattansi's program Going Underground, Kent explained how the war happened:

"The Israel lobby is vast and it runs very deep in Washington D.C. But speaking directly to President Trump, you have Miriam Adelson, you have quite a few other prominent pro-Israel donors in America who made major contributions to President Trump's campaign. That gives them a certain degree of access into the White House. By the time we got to the deliberations for this war, the President's inner circle had been shaved down a good deal.

The photos that were released that night down at Mar-a-Lago that had President Trump, you know Secretary Rubio, Director Ratcliffe of the CIA, and then you know his Department of War team, Hegseth and Caine, and then Susie Wiles. That's really the small inner circle.

The Israelis are also able to go to all those individual cabinet members because they've cultivated long-term relationships with these individuals during their political careers. A lot of these individuals like Rubio, like Ratcliffe, basically you have AIPAC bragging that they helped get them the jobs that they currently have there.

That gives members of the Israeli government and Israeli donors the ability to go point to point directly to them and say, 'Hey, here's our agenda. Here's some intelligence we haven't put through the regular channel' in order to get their stated objective of a regime change war in Iran across the finish line.

You also have an entire ecosystem in the media, people like Mark Levin, Fox News. You have think tanks like the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies that's constantly putting so-called experts on Fox News, the programs they know the President is consuming. It creates an ecosystem or an echo chamber, however you want to phrase it, around the President, and that's basically the story of how we've gotten into this war."

(Going Underground on X, September 26, 2026; episode promo "Joe Kent: How Netanyahu & The Israel Lobby TRAPPED Trump in the War on Iran Quagmire"; full episode on Rumble, titled in part "Israel knew the Iran war would not be quick, misled Trump"). That single passage names every mechanism this section documents: donors (see Miriam Adelson), AIPAC's "lifelines" (see the lifelines), intelligence outside channels (see Israeli intelligence fed to the President), and the think tanks (see FDD).

The new movement​

In August 2026 Kent joined Marjorie Taylor Greene, Tucker Carlson, and Thomas Massie in a photo announcing their break with the President over foreign policy; Greene wrote, "The movement has begun" (M.A. Rothman on X, August 2, 2026). See Greene's resignation and the new movement.

Why his word carries weight​

Kent had every career reason to stay quiet. He was the President's appointee, a combat veteran with a hawkish reputation on terrorism, and the official whose job was to find threats, not to dismiss them. When the man paid to find threats to Americans says there was no imminent threat from Iran, and that a foreign government and its lobby built the case, citizens should weigh that above the word of those who profited from the war.

Status: Joe Kent — Alive. Donald Trump, Karoline Leavitt, Tucker Carlson, Ron Filipkowski, Mark Levin, Laura Loomer, Max Abrahms, Afshin Rattansi, Marco Rubio, John Ratcliffe, Pete Hegseth, Dan Caine, Susie Wiles, and Miriam Adelson are alive. Charlie Kirk — Deceased (2025). This page reports Kent's statements; it does not state that any living person committed a crime.

Sources​

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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