White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said she hasn’t heard President Donald Trump question the job status of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard following the resignation of a top U.S. counterterrorism official over the war in Iran.
Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center and longtime supporter of the president, announced his departure in a letter to Trump posted to X on Tuesday, claiming that Iran posed “no imminent threat” to the United States and he “cannot in good conscience” back the ongoing conflict.
“I pray that you will reflect upon what we are doing in Iran, and who we are doing it for,” Kent wrote to Trump. “The time for bold action is now.”
“You can reverse course and chart a new path for our nation, or you can allow us to slip further toward decline and chaos,” he added. “You hold the cards.”
The sudden resignation — the first high-ranking official to do so in protest of the war — quickly raised questions on social media about Gabbard’s future tenure in the Trump administration. A longtime anti-interventionist, Gabbard has largely remained silent since the United States and Israel launched a joint military operation in Iran starting Feb. 28.
While speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Leavitt was asked directly about whether Gabbard’s role is in “jeopardy” in the wake of the announcement.
“Not to my knowledge,” Leavitt said, before pointing to Trump: "Obviously, that’s a question for him, but I haven’t heard him say that at all."
Leavitt also told Fox News that Trump has full confidence in Gabbard.
Hours after Kent declared his exit, Gabbard stood behind Trump in a carefully worded statement, writing on X that the president had concluded “the terrorist Islamist regime in Iran posed an imminent threat and he took action based on that conclusion.”
“As our Commander in Chief, he is responsible for determining what is and is not an imminent threat, and whether or not to take action he deems necessary to protect the safety and security of our troops, the American people and our country,” Gabbard said in a post. “The Office of the Director of National Intelligence is responsible for helping coordinate and integrate all intelligence to provide the President and Commander in Chief with the best information available to inform his decisions.”
Gabbard notably did not indicate whether she supported the president’s conclusion.
And in her first public appearance since the resignation, Gabbard, who is before the Senate Intelligence Committee alongside other intelligence officials, was accused by Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) of omitting parts of a prepared statement about Iran’s nuclear program.
“The regime in Iran appears to be intact, but largely degraded, due to attacks on its leadership and military capabilities,” Gabbard said during her opening statement at the hearing, which is focused on national security threats. “Its conventional military power projection capabilities have largely been destroyed, leaving limited options. Iran’s strategic position has been significantly degraded.”
Kent — in his lengthy message to Trump — wrote that he supported the president’s values during his first term, and that up until June of last year, he “understood that the wars in the Middle East were a trap that robbed America of the precious lives of our patriots and depleted the wealth and prosperity of our nation.”
Kent claimed that Trump fell victim to a “misinformation campaign” by Israeli officials and some members of the media — describing it as an “echo chamber” that was used to “deceive you into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States.”
Trump took sharp aim at Kent while speaking to reporters later Tuesday.
“I always thought he was a nice guy,” he said. “But I always thought he was weak on security, very weak on security... it’s a good thing that he’s out because he said Iran was not a threat.”
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), who was named by Trump to earlier this month to succeed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, is separately testifying before the Senate Homeland Security Committee at his confirmation hearing.
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