(LifeSiteNews) – Joe Kent, President Donald Trump’s Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, announced his resignation Tuesday morning, in protest of the Trump administration’s ongoing military action against Iran.

Trump nominated Kent, a former Green Beret and CIA officer whose wife, Shannon, was killed by a suicide bomber in Syria in 2019, for the position last February. He shared his resignation letter on X, declaring he “cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran,” which he insisted “posed no imminent threat to our nation.” 

He said it was “clear we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,” rather than Trump’s public position dating back to 2011 that “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.”

“Early in this administration, high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media deployed a misinformation campaign that wholly undermined your America First platform and sowed pro-war sentiments to encourage a war with Iran,” Kent claimed. “This echo chamber was used to deceive you into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States, and that should you strike now, there was a clear path to a swift victory. This was a lie and is the same tactic the Israelis used to draw us into the disastrous Iraq war that cost our nation the lives of thousands of our best men and women.” (In fact, Israel’s then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon advised the Bush administration against invading Iraq.)

READ: Missile strike killing over 150 children at Iran school caused by outdated intel: report

After much reflection, I have decided to resign from my position as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, effective today.

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… pic.twitter.com/prtu86DpEr

— Joe Kent (@joekent16jan19) March 17, 2026

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt responded that there were “many false claims in this letter but let me address one specifically: that ‘Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation’ … As President Trump has clearly and explicitly stated, he had strong and compelling evidence that Iran was going to attack the United States first.” She added that it was “insulting and laughable” to allege “that President Trump made this decision based on the influence of others, even foreign countries.”

There are many false claims in this letter but let me address one specifically: that “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation.”

This is the same false claim that Democrats and some in the liberal media have been repeating over and over.

As President Trump has clearly and… https://t.co/AC8M5L8lye

— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) March 17, 2026

The Trump administration says it launched the joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on the Iranian regime in response to intelligence that Iran had resumed its nuclear program and may have been close to moving it far enough underground that future air strikes would not have been able to reach. Overall public opinion of the action currently averages at 44 percent approval and 48 percent disapproval, though the overwhelming majority of Trump’s “MAGA” base is supportive according to polls.

Supporters say Iran’s nuclear ambitions posed an existential threat to human life and global stability and hope a crippling or outright replacement of the regime would advance peace by cutting off its sponsorship of Islamic terrorism.

Critics, meanwhile, express concerns about Trump’s unclear and often contradictory statements about the objectives and progress of the war, including how long it will last, how victory will be defined, and what kind of leaders he is content to leave behind. The administration has also failed to quell fears it was unprepared to deal with Iran’s closing of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital oil shipping route with implications for global energy prices.