Joe Kent had access to the most sensitive intelligence in the United States government.
Then he resigned – and told America exactly what he saw.
His first interview since leaving the National Counterterrorism Center is something Washington did not want to happen.
Joe Kent Tells Tucker Carlson of Immense Pressure Cooker Trump Is Under
The interview ran nearly two hours on Tucker Carlson's show Wednesday, one day after Kent posted his resignation letter.
Kent didn't hedge.
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Joe Kent Resignation: The Career Behind the Letter
Kent is not a career bureaucrat looking for a book deal.
He served 20 years in Army Special Forces, completed 11 combat tours, and worked as a CIA paramilitary officer before entering intelligence leadership.
His first wife, Shannon, was killed in a 2019 suicide bombing in Syria while serving as a Navy cryptologist.
He was confirmed as NCTC director by the Senate last July on a 52–44 party-line vote, with Tulsi Gabbard publicly celebrating his appointment.
He is the highest-ranking Trump administration official to resign over the Iran war – and the first person with direct access to the relevant intelligence to say publicly that the justification doesn't hold.
No Intelligence Supported the Iran War Kent Says
The intelligence community found no evidence Iran was preparing a major attack on the United States before Operation Epic Fury launched, he said.
"There was no intelligence that said, hey, on whatever day it was, March 1st, the Iranians are going to launch this big sneak attack, they're going to do some kind of a 9/11, Pearl Harbor, etc. They're going to attack one of our bases. There was none of that intelligence," Kent told Carlson.
He said the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had actually been moderating Iran's nuclear program – actively preventing the regime from crossing the line to a nuclear weapon.
And he said killing Khamenei the way America did would push ordinary Iranians to rally around the regime rather than break from it.
On the question of how the war started, Kent was direct.
Key decision makers, including himself, were blocked from presenting their assessments to the president before the strikes began.
"A good deal of key decision makers were not allowed to come and express their opinion," he said.
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The Response From Washington
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration had "strong and compelling evidence" from multiple sources that Iran was preparing to strike first – and called Kent's claim that Israel influenced the decision "insulting and laughable."
Senior officials told reporters Kent had been cut out of presidential briefings months ago over suspected leaks – a claim Kent said he had anticipated.
"I understand the way I left and writing the letter that there's parts of this administration that are going to have to come after me and try and discredit me," Kent told Carlson. "I understand that."
What Comes Next
Kent said he believes Trump is listening to a broader range of voices because the president knows at some level the war isn't going well.
"I think he is listening to a lot of different people, because I think he knows at a core level, this is not going well, and he needs to find a way for us to get out of this," Kent told Carlson.
He said he would welcome the chance to speak directly with the president.
Kash Patel is investigating Kent for allegedly leaking classified information – a probe that, according to NBC News, began before he resigned.
This comes after Kent embarrassed Patel on the weak investigations and what’s been overlooked in the assisination of Charlie Kirk and the attempted assination of President Trump in Butler.
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Kent has not been charged with anything.
He walked away from one of the most sensitive jobs in American intelligence to say something the administration insists isn't true.
The classified record will eventually tell us who was right.
Sources:
- Greg Norman-Diamond, "White House, after top counterterrorism official quits, says Trump had 'strong' evidence Iran would attack US," Fox News, March 17, 2026.
- "Takeaways from former Trump administration counterterrorism chief Joe Kent's extensive interview," CNN Politics, March 18, 2026.
- "FBI conducting leak investigation into former Trump official who resigned over Iran war," NBC News, March 19, 2026.
- "Joe Kent's resignation over Iran war sparks Donald Trump and Karoline Leavitt backlash," The Hill, March 18, 2026.
- "No imminent threat: U.S. Counterterrorism Center head resigns over Iran war," Axios, March 17, 2026.
