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Joe Kent claimed on Tuesday that he did not believe the Iranian regime had presented an \u201cimminent threat\u201d to the United States prior to President Donald Trump\u2019s decision to attack \u2014 but he sang a very different tune in 2020, when he called for the elimination of Iran\u2019s nuclear capabilities.<\/p>\n
Kent announced that he was leaving his post<\/a> as director of the National Counterterrorism Center, and claimed in his resignation letter he could not \u201cin good conscience\u201d support the joint U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran, at least in part because there was no \u201cimminent threat\u201d to the United States from the regime.<\/span><\/p>\n But in January of 2020, when a U.S. strike ordered by President Trump eliminated top Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani, Kent argued on social media that the president \u2014 to his way of thinking \u2014 had not gone far enough.<\/p>\n On January 7, four days after Soleimani was killed, Kent appeared to address<\/a> the threats coming from Iran promising retaliation for the strike on their general: \u201cWe remain in striking distance by choice for no clear benefit. We should crush their ballistic & nuke capes and get out of Iraq, with sanctions to follow. Cut Iran off from funds and targets. Let them deal with proxies looking for $ & their protesters. We don\u2019t need IZ (Iraq) or IR (Iran).\u201d<\/p>\n One day later, on January 8, Iran launched a dozen ballistic missiles at two targets in Iraq: Al Asad Airbase and another site near Irbil.<\/p>\n \u201cTrump\u2019s restraint shows that he wants a deal with Iran & his red line is American loss of life & IR nuke development. Our fundamental venerability remains \u2014 Troops in striking range of IR weapons & proxies w\/ no vital US mission,\u201d Kent posted<\/a> on the 8th, adding, \u201cI personally think we should have crushed their ballistic & nuke capes, but Trump has a plan, he has definitely earned the confidence of any clear eyed observer.\u201d<\/p>\n Even as recently as 2024, Kent\u2019s posture toward Iran was far more in line with President Donald Trump\u2019s current actions than with his own resignation letter that would come less than two years later.<\/p>\n On October 7, 2024 \u2014 one year after Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists crossed the border into Israel and slaughtered more than one thousand Israelis \u2014 Kent blamed former President Joe Biden\u2019s administration for allowing Iran access to the kind of money that could fund such an operation.<\/p>\n \u201cOctober 7th b\/c happened Biden\/Harris gave Iran access to over 100 billion,\u201d Kent posted<\/a>. \u201cTrump used diplomacy to build the Abraham accords, cut off Iran\u2019s funding & killed key terrorists. America & our allies were safe & there was less war. No more neocons, no appeasement, Trump \u201824.\u201d<\/p>\n Just a few weeks earlier, he took a similar tone<\/a>: \u201cIran\u2019s goal in orchestrating 7 Oct was to break up the Abraham accords because the historic alliance isolated Iran\u2019s terror regime. Trump used a balance of diplomacy, economic pressure & targeted strikes to contain Iran. The embodiment of peace through strength. Israel\u2019s dismantling of Hezbollah would have been much more challenging, if not impossible had Trump not taken out Iran\u2019s terror mastermind Qasim Solemani.\u201d<\/p>\n On March 17, 2026, however, Kent claimed in his resignation letter<\/a> that Iran posed no \u201cimminent threat\u201d to the United States and that Trump was taking action against the regime because he was being pushed into it by Israel.<\/p>\n \u201cIran 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,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cWho got to Joe Kent?\u201d Steve Guest wondered<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n