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The top official on counterterrorism within the Trump administration has resigned from his position after criticising the US war with Iran.
National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent stated in a letter posted on X that Iran posed “no imminent threat” to the US. He also claimed that the Trump administration “started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby”.
Kent, 45, is a US special forces and CIA veteran whose wife, navy cryptologic technician Shannon Kent, was killed in a suicide bombing in Syria in 2019.
Kent becomes the most high-profile figure from within the Trump administration to publicly criticise the US-Israeli operation in Iran.
In the letter, Kent said that he had previously supported Trump’s foreign policy platform and until last year believed that he had understood that the wars in the Middle East “robbed America of the precious lives of our patriots and depleted the wealth and prosperity of our nation”.
Additionally, Kent alleged that “high-ranking Israeli officials” and influential US journalists had spread “misinformation” that caused Trump to undermine his “America First” platform.
“This echo was used to deceive you into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States,” the letter continued. “This was a lie.”
Kent, a long-time supporter of Trump, has unsuccessfully run for Congress twice. He was nominated by the president early in his administration and narrowly confirmed to his post, with many Democrats criticising his links to extremist groups, including members of the Proud Boys.
During his confirmation hearing, Kent also refused to back away from claims that federal agents had fomented the January 6 riots at the US Capitol or that Trump had won the 2020 election.
At the National Counterterrorism Center, he reported to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and oversaw the analysis and detection of potential terrorist threats from around the globe.
Previously, Kent had deployed 11 times overseas with the US military, including with the US Army’s special forces in Iraq. He later became a paramilitary officer at the CIA before leaving government service after his wife’s death.
Kent cited his military service and her death in his letter, saying that he “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”.
There have been a number of resignations among senior officials in the Trump administration, including Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement director Margaret Ryan and Kennedy Center president Ric Grenell.
The president’s second term, however, has seen far less turnover than his previous tenure at the White House between 2017 and 2021.
Meanwhile, President Trump has said that he is planning to delay a high-stakes visit to China later in March by about a month because of the Iran war.
“We’ve requested that we delay it a month or so,” he told reporters at the White House, adding that it was important that he remain available to oversee the war.
The meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping is currently set to take place between 31 March and 2 April, following their last face-to-face talks in October last year.
Chinese foreign affairs spokesman Lin Jian said on Tuesday that Beijing and Washington are in talks over “the timing and related matters of President Trump’s visit to China”.
China also rejected any connection between the delayed meeting and issues around the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway for global energy shipments from the Gulf.
“We have noted that the US side has publicly clarified these false reports by the media, stating that the relevant reports are completely wrong, and emphasised that the visit has nothing to do with the issue of the open navigation of the Strait of Hormuz,” Jian said.
