The director of the National Counterterrorism Center resigned from his post on Tuesday in protest of Donald Trump’s ongoing war against Iran. Joe Kent, a former Army Ranger and CIA paramilitary officer, announced that he “cannot in good conscience support” the war, and that Iran was not an imminent threat to the United States, which the president and his administration have claimed in order to justify attacking the nation.
“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,” Kent wrote in a statement released through his office and circulated on social media. “As a veteran who deployed to combat 11 times and as a Gold Star husband who lost my beloved wife Shannon in a war manufactured by Israel, 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.”
Kent rose to prominence among the MAGA right as a frequent guest on the now-defunct Fox News show of Tucker Carlson, and ran two failed congressional campaigns in his home state of Washington.
His resignation is the first high-profile departure from a Trump administration official directly related to the ongoing war against Iran. Kent’s citing of Israel’s role in pressing the United States into the conflict echoes divisions within Republican politics over the amount of leverage Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are exerting over American foreign policy decisions.
Kent addressed Trump directly in his public resignation. “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,” he wrote.
“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,” Kent added. “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. We cannot make this mistake again.”
Courtesy of Sam Reich
Supporters of James Talarico cheer as they watch midterm election returns during a watch party at the Long Center for the Performing Arts Nov. 3, 2026 in Austin, Texas.
America Slammed the Door on Trump. Now the Hard Work Begins
The American people have spoken, and to paraphrase Dean Wormer of Animal House fame: Lazy, stupid, and corrupt is no way to go through life, let alone run a country. The repudiation of Donald Trump and his MAGA movement was seismic and inevitable.
The gravitational laws of politics held true, and Trump’s star crashed and burned. The thrill for MAGA is gone, at least for the moment. You simply can’t keep telling people that they are winning all the time when they feel like they are losing. Counting on the American people to once again believe you over their own lying eyes is a trick play you can only run so much. Just ask Joe Biden.
The poisonous combination of an unpopular and unnecessary war, horrible candidates, rising costs, a lousy job market, soaring gasoline prices, masked police hunting immigrants, sweeping and naked corruption, and a president more focused on ballrooms and algae blooms than on the American people all spelled electoral doom. The election results were a clear and thoroughly well-deserved ass-kicking.
Historic GOP losses in Kansas, South Carolina, Iowa, and Texas mean the Trump lame-duck era has begun. How soon will the GOP start the painful process of moving on from his stranglehold? His complete capture of the party will make the breakup difficult. And he’s not going to let them go easy. The infighting and battles for leadership will likely be vicious, but hopefully they will be about ideas. In a two-party system, having one party this radical and beholden to one person’s cult of personality has been toxic for our politics.
A perfect example of the sort of poisonous viper from the era, MAGA diehard and presidential confidante Laura Loomer took to X last night to say, “America is over. The communist and jihadists are going to open our borders and replace our votes with votes from illegal aliens. We now have reps who openly speak about their hatred of America…” It was just this sort of culture war BS from Loomer or Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (“no weirdos, beardos,” etc.) that voters grew tired of — when gas is over $4 a gallon these weak attempts at insults cease to distract. Owning the libs feels hollow when you are weighing whether to fill up the tank or buy eggs.The donor class might as well have lit a dump truck filled with cash on fire. How will Elon Musk, who spent over a whopping $450 million on the election, swallow this most bitter pill? Will he blame the president for his failures as a leader and withdraw support? Where do you even go once you have gone full MAGA?
On the other side, the Democrats set some historic and impressive firsts: first Black Speaker of the House, first openly gay man to be senator, first Black woman governor, first Native-American woman governor, first Muslim senator. These victories are truly inspiring, with more potentially on the way as votes continue to be counted (the first Black senator from Mississippi since Reconstruction seems a real possibility). The Dems have to keep growing the tent; it’s their greatest strength.
That said, now comes the hard part. The Democrats’ principal work must be to restore the country to a state of normalcy. Show voters you are fighting for them every day — stop trying to get on cable TV to grandstand about Trump and protecting democracy. The Democrats need to focus on voters’ real needs, reject the endless culture wars, and remind people that the Democrats were the party of working people for decades. Right now, folks desperately need jobs, lower prices on food and shelter, and healthcare.
Throughout his career, Sherrod Brown, returning to the Senate in Ohio after two years away, has been a messenger for working America in Washington. He represents a Rust Belt state that felt the full brunt of job losses from NAFTA and endured the opioid crisis. Dems should follow his lead to find their footing. Hold Trump accountable but don’t forget the voters back home who need help, and need it fast.
This is a huge reason for last night’s historic rebuke of Trump: He abandoned everyday Americans to focus on triumphal arches designed to honor himself. Democrats need to remember the lesson the American people just sent — being a people’s representative is not about party, it’s about service.
As Trump likes to say: Thank you for your attention to this matter.