What to know about Joe Kent, Trump counterterrorism chief who resigned over Iran war

Joe Kent, who resigned Tuesday as Nationwide Counterterrorism Heart director, has been a stalwart Trump supporter, backing him since his 2016 marketing campaign, by way of his 2020 election defeat, the Jan. 6 riots, in addition to throughout his personal conservative media advocacy and two failed congressional bids.

However that ended with Mr. Trump’s conflict in Iran and his alliance with Israel in opposition to the Islamic clerics who led the Tehran authorities. In a resignation letter he posted on X, Kent said Tuesday that Iran “posed no imminent menace to our nation,” and he asserted that “we began this conflict because of stress from Israel and its highly effective American foyer.” 

Kent, 45, is a particular forces fight veteran with ties to right-wing extremists and was seen as a Trump loyalist. His causes for resigning contradicted the president’s assertion that Iran was poised to assault the U.S. 

On Feb. 28, in a video asserting the primary airstrikes, Mr. Trump mentioned his goal was “eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime.” He mentioned Iran’s “menacing actions straight endanger the US, our troops, our bases abroad, and our allies all through the world.”

Kent, in his resignation letter to Mr. Trump, instructed the president had been misled and that “high-ranking Israeli officers and influential members of the American media deployed a misinformation marketing campaign … to encourage a conflict with Iran.” 

Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell denounced the remark as “virulent anti-Semitism” and mentioned in a post on X that it was clear Kent was incapable of upholding a pledge he’d made to senators “to guide with integrity and accountability.” 

An administration official informed CBS Information that Kent was not concerned in briefings on Iran. 

The Free Press: Joe Kent Resigns. Will Others Follow?

Director of Nationwide Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, whose workplace oversaw Kent’s work, mentioned it was as much as Mr. Trump to determine whether or not Iran posed a menace to the U.S.

“After rigorously reviewing all the data earlier than him, President Trump concluded that the terrorist Islamist regime in Iran posed an imminent menace and he took motion primarily based on that conclusion,” Gabbard wrote in a social media publish Tuesday.

On Wednesday, a number of sources with direct information of the matter told CBS News that the FBI is investigating Kent in reference to alleged leaks of labeled info. The probe started earlier than Kent resigned this week, the sources mentioned.

The FBI declined to touch upon the matter when reached by CBS Information. 

Affiliation with far-right figures, conspiracy theories

In his Senate affirmation hearings, Kent acknowledged that in considered one of his two failed congressional campaigns, a political advisor arrange a name joined by right-wing white nationalist Nick Fuentes. Fuentes has mentioned that Jews are holding the U.S. “hostage” and as soon as proclaimed that “Hitler was superior; Hitler was proper.”

When he ran for a Home seat in 2022, Kent paid Graham Jorgensen, a member of the far-right army group the Proud Boys, for consulting work. He additionally labored intently with Joey Gibson, the founding father of the Christian nationalist group Patriot Prayer, and attracted help from a wide range of far-right figures.

Kent has additionally endorsed plenty of conspiracy theories and made plenty of controversial claims. He is claimed the COVID vaccine wasn’t a vaccine, however reasonably, “an experimental gene remedy,” and has additionally mentioned Dr. Anthony Fauci, the previous director of the Nationwide Institute of Allergy and Infectious Ailments, ought to face murder prices. Kent additionally mentioned he believes the 2020 election was stolen from Mr. Trump and has referred to the Jan. 6, 2021, rioters as “political prisoners.” 

He echoed a conspiracy concept that federal brokers had in some way instigated the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol. He mentioned Biden needs to be impeached and known as for an investigation into the 2020 election. Kent known as for the defunding of the FBI after its search on the president’s Mar-a-Lago residence for labeled paperwork.

Kent later disavowed a few of his right-wing ties and mentioned he rejected all “racism and bigotry.” Throughout his Senate hearings, he declined to distance himself from his 2020 election denialism.

He was confirmed in July on a 52-44 Senate vote that fell intently alongside occasion traces. Each Democrat opposed his nomination, citing his right-wing ties. GOP Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina was the one Republican to oppose Kent’s affirmation.

Because the director of the Nationwide Counterterrorism Heart, Kent led an intelligence company that was created after the 9/11 assaults to investigate and detect terrorist threats. Amongst different duties, the company maintains the U.S. authorities’s listing of identified and suspected terrorists.

Kent’s army background

Earlier than his affirmation, Kent labored as Gabbard’s chief of workers. He is a retired Inexperienced Beret who deployed to 11 fight missions, principally in Iraq, throughout a 20-year profession within the Military.

After his retirement in 2018, he grew to become a paramilitary officer with the CIA and served as a counterterrorism adviser to Trump’s 2020 presidential reelection marketing campaign. He was a daily on conservative cable reveals and podcasts earlier than and through his 2022 and 2024 congressional bids.

Kent’s first spouse, Shannon Kent, was a Navy cryptologist killed by a suicide bomber in 2019 whereas combating the Islamic State group in Syria. She was fluent in seven languages and paved the best way for the elevated inclusion of ladies in Particular Operations Forces. She served a number of excursions in Iraq and took part in plenty of particular operations that resulted within the seize of a whole lot of enemy insurgents, based on the Navy.

After his spouse’s loss of life, Kent spoke out in opposition to U.S. intervention around the globe. “That’s the reason I’ve a skepticism of our federal authorities,” he mentioned, including that Shannon had died as a result of “Republicans and Democrats constantly lied to the American individuals to maintain us engaged in wars overseas.”

In the course of the U.S.’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, Kent lambasted the protection trade and “everlasting ruling class” in Washington. He instructed some proponents of international nation constructing have been naïve and others have been pushed by revenue motives.

“It speaks to our hubris,” Kent informed reporters whereas campaigning for Congress. “For us to not have discovered from all this simply reveals that there are individuals making a living and making their careers on the different finish of it. They have been doing it on the backs and useless our bodies of U.S. troopers.”

Mr. Trump praised Kent when he nominated him in February 2025, saying in a social media publish that Kent “will assist us maintain America protected by eradicating all terrorism, from the jihadists across the World, to the cartels in our yard.” 

In Senate affirmation hearings, Kent centered on cartels reasonably than Center East

However at his Senate affirmation hearings, Kent centered closely on Latin American drug cartels, reasonably than the Center East.

“President Trump is dedicated to figuring out these cartels and these violent gang members and ensuring that we find them and that we get them out of our nation,” Kent informed the Senate Intelligence Committee.

His nomination faced some scrutiny when emails emerged displaying that whereas he was Gabbard’s chief of workers, he had pressed senior intelligence analysts to amend an evaluation of hyperlinks between the Venezuelan authorities and the felony gang, Tren de Aragua. Within the emails, Kent pressed the analysts to align the evaluation extra intently with Trump administration insurance policies and to incorporate references that criticized Biden-era immigration packages. Kent’s revisions supported Mr. Trump’s assertions that Tren de Aragua members could possibly be eliminated underneath the wartime Alien Enemies Act.

Sign chat about strikes on Houthis

Throughout his affirmation listening to, Democratic senators grilled Kent about his participation in a gaggle chat on Sign utilized by Mr. Trump’s nationwide safety staff to debate delicate army plans.

The Sign chat, which inadvertently included the editor in chief of The Atlantic magazine, confirmed Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth offered details about the timing of warplane launches and airstrikes in opposition to Houthis in Yemen in March 2025. The disclosure of usually labeled info got here earlier than the women and men flying these assaults have been airborne.

It grew to become an embarrassing flashpoint for the administration, although prime Trump administration officers denied classified information was divulged and Hegseth, Kent and others confronted no penalties from the president.