Who is Joe Kent, the counterterrorism chief who just quit over the Iran war?

Joe Kent spent two decades hunting terrorists as a Green Beret and CIA operative before becoming one of the Trump administration’s most controversial intelligence figures — and the highest-ranking administration official to resign over the Iran war.

Mr. Kent, who resigned Tuesday as director of the National Counterterrorism Center, is a decorated combat veteran who said he could not “in good conscience” continue serving while the U.S. wages war in the Middle East, a war he argues was manufactured by Israeli pressure rather than genuine American national security needs.

From Sweet Home, Oregon to the world’s most dangerous places

Born April 11, 1980, in Sweet Home, Oregon, to Catholic parents who later became lawyers, Mr. Kent enlisted at 17 into the 75th Ranger Regiment. After the Sept. 11 attacks, he charged into conflict, serving 11 combat tours — mostly in Iraq, with deployments in Yemen and North Africa — and earned six Bronze Stars. He rose to the rank of chief warrant officer in the Green Berets before collecting his pension in 2018 and joining the CIA as a paramilitary officer.

His life changed permanently on Jan. 16, 2019, when his wife Shannon, a Navy cryptologist he had married in 2013, was killed in a suicide bombing in Syria. The couple had two young sons together. Mr. Kent has said Shannon’s death, which occurred roughly a month after President Trump attempted to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, prompted him to leave the shadows of intelligence work and enter public life.

Two failed congressional campaigns

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SEE ALSO: Director of the National Counterterrorism Center resigns over opposition to the Iran war

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After leaving the CIA, Mr. Kent turned to politics. In February 2021, he announced a campaign for Washington’s 3rd Congressional District, citing Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler’s vote to impeach Mr. Trump following the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. Mr. Trump endorsed him, and his profile was significantly boosted by Tucker Carlson, who frequently featured him on his Fox News program.

The campaign was not without controversy. Mr. Kent paid a member of the right-wing Proud Boys for consulting work and worked closely with Joey Gibson, founder of the Christian nationalist group Patriot Prayer. He also made repeated references to Sam Francis, a white nationalist writer, and faced allegations of associations with white nationalists. He lost to Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez in what was described as one of the largest upsets of the 2022 cycle, then lost a rematch to her in 2024.

Into the intelligence world

By early 2025, Mr. Kent had been serving as acting chief of staff to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Mr. Trump then nominated him to lead the National Counterterrorism Center, and he was confirmed on a 52-44 vote last July, with Democrats strongly opposing his appointment over his past ties to far-right figures and his refusal to distance himself from conspiracy theories, including the claim that federal agents instigated the Jan. 6 attack. In that role, he oversaw counterterrorism and counternarcotics activities and served as the principal counterterrorism adviser to the president.

The resignation

On Tuesday, Mr. Kent posted an open letter to Mr. Trump on social media announcing his departure. He argued that high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media had deployed a misinformation campaign that “wholly undermined” the president’s America First platform and pushed the country toward war with Iran. He drew an explicit parallel to the lead-up to the Iraq War, which he said cost thousands of American lives on the basis of a similar deception.

Mr. Kent also invoked his late wife’s memory in the letter. “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,” he wrote.

The resignation drew sharply divergent reactions. Mr. Carlson praised Mr. Kent, saying he was leaving a position with access to the highest-level intelligence and understood the personal risks of speaking out. Rep. Don Bacon, a former Air Force brigadier general, responded with “good riddance” on social media, accusing Mr. Kent of antisemitism.

Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, and one of Mr. Kent’s sharpest longtime critics, said he strongly disagreed with many of Mr. Kent’s positions but agreed with him on the Iran war, saying there was no credible evidence of an imminent threat that would have justified military action.

Mr. Kent is the highest-ranking Trump administration official to resign over the Iran war, though he is not the first; a lower-level appointee, Sameerah Munshi, announced her departure from the White House Religious Liberty Commission last week, also citing the conflict.