The resignation of Donald Trump’s chief counterterrorism officer over the Iran war is a major step in the “unravelling” of the President’s administration, insiders have told The i Paper.
The decision to step down by Joe Kent, the head of the National Counter Terrorism Center, is the most important resignation of the President’s second term in office and shows the White House is in “disarray” over the Middle East conflict, experts warned.
One suggested the situation could become “catastrophic” for the President if it leads Kent’s boss, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, to follow suit.
The resignation comes in the third week of the Iran war, which polls show is opposed by the majority of Americans. Trump, who came to power for a second time promising no new wars, has given shifting reasons for why the conflict started and has repeatedly changed his mind on how long it will last.
Kent, a former Green Beret soldier, said in his resignation letter that he could not “in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran”.
He said: “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.”
The President has dismissed the comments and said Kent was “weak on security”.
US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has also made clear she does not support Donald Trump’s war – and some predict she could be next to quit (Photo: Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images)But the 45-year-old’s credentials as a staunch Trump supporter who even backed the President’s baseless claims that the 2020 election was rigged make him a hard voice to silence.
After his career in the military and the death of his wife, a Navy cryptologic technician, by a suicide bomber in Syria in 2019 while on duty, Kent ran for office twice in Washington as a Republican. He has been in his current post since February last year.
Peter Loge, director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University, told The i Paper that the story emerging around the first high-profile resignation over the war was damning for Trump.
He said: “It’s a story of increasing fracturing of the Maga base. [Former Representative] Marjorie Taylor Greene walked away, some Maga supporters are upset about Venezuela.
“The story is the Trump administration is unravelling because Maga is split over Iran, because of ICE overreach in Minnesota, the firing of [former Homeland Security Secretary] Kristi Noem.
“The Trump administration is in disarray. The resignation takes on meaning within the broader context.”
Dr Allan Lichtman, a historian and political analyst at American University, called Kent’s departure “the most important resignation in the second Trump administration”.
He said: “Not only because it’s a very important official, but also it goes to the heart of the justification for the Iran war.
“Mr Kent is saying that Trump is once again being played by a foreign authoritarian oriented leader. He’s been for a very long time played by Putin and played by Kim Jong-Un.
“It’s not just the prominence of the resignation, it’s what he said, that Trump was manipulated into this war.”
Patrick Basham, a political commentator and pollster based in Washington, said that Gabbard could be the next to quit. Gabbard’s anti-war views are well known, which explains why she has been sidelined by the Trump administration before and during the conflict.
Basham said: “That’s the name [Gabbard] that would make or break this thing.
“That would be potentially catastrophic for Trump in terms of keeping his people inside the White House in line as much as he’s able to do. That’s the one everyone is watching.”
A resignation from Gabbard could further split the coalition of voters who elected Trump in 2024, Basham said. “Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr are the reasons Trump got so many of those independents and others who never voted,” he said.
“Trump is hanging onto those at best. If they lose Kennedy or Gabbard then to those voters the gig really is up, people will say that this is not what we voted for.”
But not all the experts who spoke to The i Paper thought Kent’s departure was so significant.
Brian Seitchik, a Republican strategist and Trump campaign alum, said that the idea the President had been pressured into launching the war was “laughable”. He said that it was “just another way to blame Israel” and that it was “ridiculous” to suggest Trump could be so easily manipulated.
“Let’s not forget the left said Donald Trump was a tool of Putin,” Seitchik said.
“Now he’s a tool of Netenyahu and he’s a tool of Rubio when he went into Venezuela. I’ve been watching Donald Trump for 40 years. I’m not sure the tail is wagging the dog.
“The President does what he thinks is best, and that’s it.
“If Mr Kent wants to walk away, that’s his right, but I don’t view this as the first step in a laundry list of resignations.”
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