OPINION:
When you work in the executive branch, you serve at the pleasure of the president of the United States. When you philosophically disagree with one of his decisions, you have two choices: Either execute on that decision effectively and efficiently or quietly resign and seek employment in the private sector.
President Trump enjoys disagreement within his ranks. He hears out different opinions, weighs his options and then decides. When he gives orders, the debate is over and execution begins.
No one in the executive branch, besides the president, was elected to their position by the American public. The chain of command is clear, and your personal opinion doesn’t matter once a directive is given by the chief executive.
Joe Kent, a former director of the National Counterterrorism Center and a former nameless bureaucrat, chose insubordination.
Within an hour of posting an unauthorized resignation letter on official government letterhead filled with antisemitic conspiracy theories and accusing Mr. Trump of being manipulated by Israel, Mr. Kent was booked on Tucker Carlson’s podcast.
After the show dropped, hundreds of social media accounts simultaneously started posting the same clip with the same message: Mr. Trump went to war with Iran because he is “under threat” by Israel. Mr. Kent’s media tour is not yet complete; he was booked by the anti-Israel group “Catholics for Catholics” to speak alongside Candace Owens.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, used Mr. Kent’s resignation to call on Congress to force an end to the Iran war. His name has been splashed on every legacy media news site looking to drive a wedge in Mr. Trump’s MAGA base, question Mr. Trump’s agency and fuel discord against Israel.
To be clear: This not-so-subtle influence campaign hasn’t been effective. CNN reported Wednesday that Mr. Trump’s approval among MAGA Republicans is literally 100%. Ninety percent of MAGA Republicans approve of U.S. military action in Iran.
“Those who disapprove of Trump are not MAGA at this point,” CNN pollster Harry Enten observed. “Importantly: MAGA makes up the same share of voters as it did when Trump won in 2024.”
Still, something insidious is happening within Mr. Trump’s ranks, in coordination with far-right, anti-Israel “influencers.”
Mr. Carlson, whose voice was respected and highly rated when he was platformed at Fox News, has now become a full-blown anti-Israel conspiracy theorist. In a bizarre announcement Sunday, he claimed that the CIA read his text messages leading up to the war to frame him as a foreign agent.
“The CIA is preparing some kind of criminal referral against me, a crime report to the Department of Justice, on the basis of a supposed crime I committed,” Mr. Carlson said on his podcast. “What’s the crime? Well, talking to people in Iran before the war. [The CIA] read my texts.”
Mr. Carlson has vehemently been against the war in Iran. If, in fact, he was communicating with Iranian officials before the war, then those communications should be investigated, especially given his access to the White House. Mr. Carlson frequently visits because he is friends with Vice President J.D. Vance, and his son works for the vice president.
The day after Mr. Carlson’s supposed CIA revelation, Mr. Kent posted his resignation letter.
Reportedly, Mr. Kent was cut from intelligence briefings months ago as a suspected leaker, excluded from all Iran war planning and ignored Mr. Vance’s personal counsel to speak with Susie Wiles, the president’s chief of staff, before going public.
On Thursday, news broke that the FBI was investigating Mr. Kent for leaking sensitive intelligence, a matter that predated his resignation.
What is disturbing is that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was reportedly notified of these leaks and was advised to fire Mr. Kent, but she never did. When Mr. Kent left his position, Ms. Gabbard hired another alleged leaker to her agency.
On Monday, Ms. Gabbard employed Dan Caldwell as an adviser to senior intelligence officials. Mr. Caldwell was fired by the Pentagon months into Mr. Trump’s second administration for suspected leaks.
As The Wall Street Journal noted, Mr. Caldwell did his first exit interview on Mr. Tucker’s podcast. He appeared once again during the 12-day war in June, opposing U.S. intervention.
“The costs of a conventional strike are potentially catastrophic in lives, dollars, and instability,” Mr. Caldwell said in June. Iran’s retaliation “could lead to hundreds, if not thousands of casualties.”
Messrs. Carlson’s and Caldwell’s predictions were wrong.
Ms. Gabbard also has a history of opposing U.S. intervention in Iran. She largely stuck to the president’s talking points in testimony this week, but in a written statement said Iran hasn’t tried to reconstitute its nuclear enrichment program since the June bombing by the U.S. and Israel, seemingly contradicting CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who told the Senate that Iran posed an “immediate threat” to the U.S. before the war began.
The White House has said it has confidence in Ms. Gabbard. Given the fallout with Mr. Kent, the hiring of Mr. Caldwell and her circumspect testimony this week, I’m not so sure I do.
Mr. Trump’s first administration was filled with actors openly defying the president’s orders and working against him. This administration has largely learned from those past mistakes, with the potential exception of Ms. Gabbard.
During a time of war, even the slightest distrust, especially of someone guarding our national security intelligence, should be grounds for removal.
• Kelly Sadler is the commentary editor at The Washington Times.
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