Trump turns Joe Kent’s past Iran stance against him after he resigns: 'Should not sit and wait'

WASHINGTON, DC: President Donald Trump wasted little time exposing an unmistakable flip-flop on Iran by one of his own appointees. 

Just hours after Joe Kent resigned as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center in protest of US military action against Iran, Trump reposted an old tweet from Kent on Truth Social in which the former Green Beret appeared to back the President’s hard line against the Tehran regime. 

The post came as the administration defended its decision to launch strikes that Trump described as necessary to prevent a nuclear threat.

Kent's flip-flop on Iran threat

Trump’s Truth Social post spotlighted Kent’s earlier stance acknowledging the dangers posed by Iran and its proxies.

"@realDonaldTrump We should not sit and wait for the next attack, wipe Iran's ballistic capability out and get our troops out of Iraq - they are only targets now," Kent wrote on January 8, 2020. "No US WIA/KIA is a tribute to the professionalism of our military and intel professionals, not Iranian restraint," he added.

Of course, it stood in stark contrast to Kent’s resignation letter.

“After much reflection, I have decided to resign from my position as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, effective today. I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran," he wrote. "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.”

He added that he supported Trump’s America First policies from the first term but claimed a “misinformation campaign” had swayed the President away from avoiding Middle East entanglements.

Trump called Kent’s departure “a good thing."  He told reporters, “It’s a good thing that he’s out because he said that Iran was not a threat,” calling him “a nice guy” who was “very weak on security.”

“When somebody is working with us that says they didn’t think Iran was a threat, we don’t want those people,” Trump said from the Oval Office. “They’re not smart people, or they’re not savvy people,” he added.  

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt backed that up, noting Trump acted on “strong and compelling evidence” that Iran planned to attack the United States first. She dismissed Kent’s claims as “both insulting and laughable”.

Conservative backlash against former Trump loyalist

Kent was once a Trump loyalist and two-time congressional candidate from Washington state. He had been confirmed to lead the National Counterterrorism Center in July 2025 on a near party-line vote. His résumé included 11 combat deployments as an Army Green Beret and CIA paramilitary work. 

He is also a Gold Star husband. His wife, Shannon, was a Navy cryptologist and was killed in a 2019 ISIS suicide bombing in Syria.

But conservative voices across platforms described Kent’s reversal as a betrayal of the very principles that earned him Trump’s endorsement and Senate confirmation. 

Former 'America's Mayor' Rudy Giuliani posted on X, “🚨 JOE KENT RESIGNS: Joe Kent just resigned as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, blaming ‘Israel’ for the war and claiming that Iran poses no threat to the United States."

“This is raising eyebrows because the same Joe Kent testified before the Senate just one year ago that Iran and its terror proxies threatened U.S. service members in the Middle East. He said ‘it would be an honor to return to the fight against terrorism, and he pledged to lead with integrity and accountability,'" Giuliani continued. “So what happened, Mr. Kent? There are some unanswered questions here, and he owes the American people an explanation.”

Fox News host Dan Bongino also pushed back hard on Kent’s “no imminent threat” claim. 

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