{"id":15358,"date":"2026-03-18T09:17:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T01:17:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=15358"},"modified":"2026-03-18T09:17:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T01:17:26","slug":"joe-kent-resignation-over-iran-war-reveals-an-internal-maga-trump-division","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=15358","title":{"rendered":"Joe Kent resignation over Iran war reveals an internal MAGA Trump division"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Joe Kent\u2019s resignation from the National Counterterrorism Center over objections to the U.S. war in Iran is putting a spotlight on divisions in the GOP and President Trump\u2019s MAGA coalition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until Kent\u2019s resignation on Tuesday, criticism of Trump\u2019s foreign policy moves and strikes in Iran had largely come from the usual GOP congressional gadflies, or right-wing commentators like Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the stunning resignation by a senior political appointee suggests some of the divisions are internal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s bigger than any resignation that happened under Biden for Gaza,\u201d said Curt Mills, editor of The American Conservative magazine, which argues for restraint in foreign policy. Mills previously supported Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJoe Kent is not a nobody. He\u2019s one of the most prominent people in the government,\u201d Mills said. \u201cUsually when people resign in protest, you hear their name for the first time. Plenty of people have heard Joe Kent\u2019s name before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kent emerged on the national political scene in 2021 as a Trump-endorsed congressional challenger who defeated then-Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) in a primary. She had voted to impeach Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Kent had strong support from former Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who now regularly criticizes Trump for not being \u201cAmerica First,\u201d and Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While he lost the general election to Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.), Kent \u2014 a former Green Beret and widower whose Navy cryptologist wife died in a 2019 ISIS bombing in Syria \u2014 became known in part for ripping into the \u201cmilitary industrial complex\u201d and his skepticism of foreign intervention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He unsuccessfully sought the Washington congressional seat again in 2024, and was rewarded with his appointment to a position within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in what was largely interpreted as a signal of Trump appealing to the noninterventionist wing of his coalition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio), who supported a resolution limiting Trump\u2019s war powers in Iran, said he thinks Kent is \u201ca good guy\u201d and has \u201cbeen a tremendous fighter for doing the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was surprised by his resignation,\u201d Davidson said, declining to elaborate on what the departure means for the MAGA movement and Republican coalition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most Republicans, however, dismissed Kent\u2019s fiery resignation letter, in which he asserted that \u201cIran posed no imminent threat to our nation\u201d and that the U.S. \u201cstarted this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, downplayed Kent\u2019s prominence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI never heard of him before today\u2019s news,\u201d Mast said. \u201cNever crossed paths with him, never heard from him, never spoke to him, never one thing about him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who backed Kent\u2019s nomination for the post in late July, thanked Kent\u2019s family for their service, but he disagreed with Kent\u2019s argument that Iran was not an imminent threat to the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI disagree with his misguided assessment. Iran\u2019s vast missile arsenal and support for terrorism posed a grave and growing threat to America,\u201d Cotton said in a statement. \u201cIndeed, the ayatollahs have maimed and killed thousands of Americans. President Trump recognized this threat and made the right call to eliminate it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called Kent\u2019s claims about the threat of Iran \u201cfalse\u201d and said the allegation that Trump made his decision to strike Iran because of pressure from Israel were \u201cinsulting and laughable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard \u2014 known for her previous staunch opposition to U.S. foreign intervention and against military action in Iran \u2014 released a careful statement in the wake of Kent\u2019s departure that did not directly mention Kent, but it said Trump concluded Iran posed an imminent threat to the U.S. and that he \u201ctook action based on that conclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs 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,\u201d Gabbard said in the statement, which also did not say U.S. intelligence itself indicated Iran represented an imminent threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gabbard has been in touch with the White House since Kent\u2019s resignation, an administration official speaking on condition of anonymity told The Hill on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kent was not involved in the administration\u2019s briefings ahead of the decision to launch strikes on Iran, and Gabbard was not at any point asked by the White House to fire him, the official said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Javed Ali, counterterrorism director on the National Security Council during Trump\u2019s first term, said Kent\u2019s resignation is a \u201cmajor\u201d development since his decision is based on \u201cprinciple over his policy disagreement with the Iran war, rather than for performance in his position.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cKent\u2019s background as a seasoned combat veteran with multiple deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan gave him a unique perspective as director, and over the past year he aligned some of the center\u2019s work to focus more on President Trump\u2019s priorities against drug cartels and transnational gangs that have been formally designated as foreign terrorist organizations under U.S. law,\u201d Ali told The Hill on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ali, now a professor at the University of Michigan, said it was unclear whether other senior officials holding Senate-confirmed roles will \u201clikewise resign because of their similar disagreement with the Iran war, or whether Kent will be the only one to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The resignation did not appear to unnerve Trump, who on Tuesday said Kent \u201cseemed like a pretty nice guy\u201d but was \u201cvery weak on security.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump has brushed off criticism from those who used to be his staunchest supporters and allies over the Iran war. On Sunday, for instance, Trump said those attacking radio host and Fox News commentator Mark Levin \u2014 who had been extremely supportive of the Iran strikes \u2014 \u201cARE NOT MAGA, I AM.\u201d Levin\u2019s critics include Megyn Kelly and Tucker Carlson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond the political fractures, Kent\u2019s resignation is raising concern about U.S. preparedness during wartime. Colin P. Clarke, the director of policy and research at the Soufan Group and a counterterrorism expert, said he wasn\u2019t surprised by Kent\u2019s resignation over his opposition to the Iran war, but he emphasized that the post needs to be filled immediately with an experienced official.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe U.S. has scaled back on counterterrorism resources for years now, it\u2019s something I\u2019ve repeatedly warned against, as budgets are slashed, agencies are shuttered and personnel are moved to other priority areas for this current administration, including immigration enforcement. The threat is spiking at the same time that the country is woefully unprepared to deal with it,\u201d Clarke told The Hill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joe Kent\u2019s resignation from the National Counterterrorism Center over objections to the U.S. war in Iran is putting a spotlight on divisions in the GOP and President Trump\u2019s MAGA coalition. Until Kent\u2019s resignation on Tuesday, criticism of Trump\u2019s foreign policy moves and strikes in Iran had largely come from the usual GOP congressional gadflies, or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":15359,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1724,61],"class_list":["post-15358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-trump","tag-usa"],"yoast_head":"\nJoe Kent resignation over Iran war reveals an internal MAGA Trump division - LISTEN WORLD<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=15358\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Joe Kent resignation over Iran war reveals an internal MAGA Trump division - LISTEN WORLD\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Joe Kent\u2019s resignation from the National Counterterrorism Center over objections to the U.S. war in Iran is putting a spotlight on divisions in the GOP and President Trump\u2019s MAGA coalition. 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