Top Trump counterterror adviser resigns over Iran war: ‘No imminent threat’

Kent is the highest-profile administration official to step down over the war.

By Beatrice Peterson

March 17, 2026, 8:45 AM

The Trump administration's top counterterrorism official Joe Kent announced his resignation Tuesday over opposition to the Iran war, becoming the highest-profile administration official to step down publicly over the conflict.

In a resignation letter posted publicly on social media, Kent said he could not "in good conscience" support the war, which is now in its third week.

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"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, who served as the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, wrote in his resignation letter.

The National Counterterrorism Center is housed within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. ABC News has reached out to ODNI for comment.

ODNI says Kent oversaw the U.S. counterterrorism and counternarcotics enterprise and, according to his biography, he served as the principal counterterrorism adviser to the president.

ABC News has reached out to the White House and several Israeli officials for comment.

Kent is a combat veteran who served more than 20 years in the U.S. Army and completed 11 combat deployments in the Middle East.

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Kent also invoked a deeply personal loss in explaining his decision to step down: he is a Gold Star husband whose late wife, Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Shannon Kent, was killed in action during a suicide bombing while serving in Syria in 2019.

In his resignation letter, Kent wrote, "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."