WASHINGTON — Joe Kent, who departed his post as the nation’s top counterterrorism official in a stunning resignation on Tuesday, said Wednesday that he and other skeptical administration officials were barred from sharing concerns about attacking Iran with President Donald Trump.
“A good deal of key decision-makers were not allowed to come and express their opinion to the president,” Kent said during an interview on “The Tucker Carlson Show.” “There wasn’t a robust debate.”
Kent, who ran twice to represent Washington state in Congress, sat for a two-hour interview — his first since resigning — with the right-wing podcaster. Carlson, a Trump ally, has also been a vocal critic of the war in Iran.
Kent repeated claims he wrote in his resignation letter during the Wednesday evening interview, including that Iran posed “no imminent threat” and that outside interests manipulated the president into launching the war. But his comments suggested that there were wider concerns within the administration about the war that may be fracturing Trump’s supporters.
During the interview, Kent said the Iranian government was not on the verge of attaining a nuclear weapon. “They weren’t three weeks ago when the war started, and they weren’t in June, either,” referring to the limited operation in Iran last year.
He repeatedly said that Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and lobbyists representing Israel’s interests pushed the Trump administration into war with Iran. Some lawmakers and Jewish groups have criticized these statements as antisemitic.
“There was no intelligence that said … that the Iranians are going to launch this big sneak attack,” Kent said on the show. “The Israelis drove the decision to take this action.”
The White House has sharply rebuked Kent. Trump, who previously endorsed Kent as a congressional candidate, on Tuesday said Kent “was weak on security.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Kent’s claims were “laughable.”
“As President Trump has clearly and explicitly stated, he had strong and compelling evidence that Iran was going to attack the United States first,” Leavitt said in a statement. “This evidence was compiled from many sources and factors.”
Trump enthusiastically nominated Kent to head the National Counterterrorism Center in February 2025 after Kent lost his 2024 congressional bid for Southwest Washington state’s 3rd Congressional District.
Kent, who has long espoused conspiracy theories and carried connections to white nationalist groups, was confirmed to the counterterrorism role in July, tasked with coordinating the nation’s strategy against terrorism.
He reported to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who appeared before a Senate committee on Wednesday. Gabbard, who has previously supported noninterventionist foreign policies, did not speak on Kent’s resignation during the hearing.
She repeatedly dodged questions about whether Trump had been warned about the fallout, including Iran’s attacks on Gulf nations and its effective closure of the vital Strait of Hormuz. She declined to directly answer whether the intelligence community had assessed that Iran presented an imminent risk to the U.S., telling lawmakers that it was ultimately up to Trump — and only Trump — to determine whether Iran posed a threat.
Kent during his interview with Carlson said he became increasingly resolute on his resignation as the war has dragged on with no clear end in sight.
“It should’ve been a hard decision, but for me it was crystal clear,” Kent said. “I can’t be a part of this in good conscience.”
He said that he spoke with Trump before departing the administration. “Not the best conversation ever,” Kent said. “I think we departed personally on good terms.”
