President Donald Trump calls his former counterterrorism chiefs’ resignation a “good thing” after Joe Kent unexpectedly resigned over the ongoing Iran war. The former even refuted the claims made in the latter’s resignation letter.
Donald Trump speaks about Joe Kent resigning
Speaking to reporters on March 17 alongside Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin, Donald Trump addressed Joe Kent’s resignation letter, which publicly criticized the US-Israeli attack on Iran. The president acknowledged Kent personally but took issue with his professional judgment.
“I always thought he was a nice guy, but I always thought he was weak on security,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. After reviewing Kent’s resignation statement, Trump said, “I realized that it’s a good thing that he’s out,” adding that “every country realized what a threat Iran was.”
Kent, a US special forces and CIA veteran whose wife was killed in a 2019 Syria suicide bombing, stepped down and urged Trump to “reverse course” on the Iran War. In his letter posted on X, Kent claimed Iran posed “no imminent threat” to the United States and alleged the administration “started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”
The president rejected those claims outright. Regarding officials who disagree that attacking Iran was vital for US national security, Trump stated, “We don’t want those people” (via CNN). Furthermore, the White House pushed back against Kent’s accusations. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called suggestions that foreign influence drove Trump’s decision “both insulting and laughable.” Even insisting the president had “compelling evidence” of an imminent Iranian attack.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, to whom Kent reported, backed Trump’s position, stating the president “concluded that the terrorist Islamist regime in Iran posed an imminent threat and he took action based on that conclusion.”
Kent, who deployed 11 times overseas with US forces, wrote in his resignation that he “cannot support sending the next generation off to fight and die in a war that serves no benefit to the American people nor justifies the cost of American lives.”
Originally reported by Devanshi Basu on Mandatory.
