Donald Trump’s former counterintelligence official blamed Israel for providing the US with faulty intelligence in the lead-up to the war with Iran and said the president should have continued negotiating with Tehran. 

Joe Kent, the former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said in his resignation letter Tuesday that Iran posed no imminent threat and the war was driven by pressure from Israel.

‘Key decision makers were not allowed to express their opinions. There wasn’t a robust debate,’ Kent told Tucker Carlson on Wednesday.

Kent argued that Trump should have created a communication backchannel with Iran and allow Israel to fight the war themselves. 

‘I think there’s a potential there where we could have done several different things, we could have simply said to the Israelis, “No you will not, and if you do, we will take something away from you,”‘ he said. 

He added that ‘Israeli officials… will say all kind of things that simply isn’t true’ and said ‘it did seem like Benjamin Netanyahu was in the White House quite a bit’ as opposed to himself and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. 

Without naming names, he said that staffers dissenting opinions in the administration were not allowed to speak to President Trump.

Joe Kent continued to blame Israel for the US’s involvement in the Iran War, continuing to argue that an imminent threat from Tehran ‘simply did not exist’

Fire breaks out at the Shahran oil depot after US and Israeli attacks, leaving numerous fuel tankers and vehicles in the area unusable in Tehran

‘It seemed to be a foregone conclusion that this was happening.’ 

Kent also warned that the next supreme leader of Iran that replaces Ali Khamenei will be ‘more radical,’ claiming that Ayatollah Khamenei ‘was preventing them from getting a nuclear weapon.’ 

‘Going aggressively after the ayatollah was the last thing we should have ever done.’ 

He reiterated to Carlson, who has also criticized Donald Trump on the strikes, that there was no threat to America from Iran and that the war was done on behalf of Israel, citing Marco Rubio’s statement shortly after the war began. 

‘This speaks to the broader issue: who is in charge of our policy in the Middle East? Who is in charge of when we decide to go to war or not?’

He said that the president, Rubio and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson’s public comments confirm that ‘the Israelis drove the decision to take this action which we knew would set off a series of events,’ meaning the Iranians would retaliate. 

Kent said there was no issue with the United States’ alliance with Israel but the US had to be in charge of how they used those weapons. 

‘Its fine that we offer defense to Israel, but when were providing the means of defense, we get to dictate the terms of when they go on the offensive, otherwise they stand to lose that relationship,’ he said. 

He did say that Iran has been a threat in the past and has praised Trump’s actions in the Middle East in the past, but continues to say that this war was a bad decision

Carlson – who said he spent ‘the last 24 hours’ with Kent – led into an interview by playing a chat he had with Kent in 2024, where he predicted that the war would go badly before asking Kent to explain his letter

‘The Israelis felt emboldened that no matter what they did, they could take this action and we would just have to react.’ 

Kent also said that there was ‘a lobby’ pushing us to go to war. 

He did say that Iran has been a threat in the past and has praised Trump’s actions in the Middle East in the past, but continues to say that this war was a bad decision. 

Kent called the decision to quit ‘crystal clear’ but felt he couldn’t influence the President any further. 

‘For me personally, watching more casualties come in, I just couldn’t stand by and continue to soldier on in this, it’s time to try something different. I’ve been on this path before, I’ve seen the data,’ the Iraq War veteran said. 

He said that Trump should ‘take a look and assess’ what’s happening and return to his ‘no new wars, don’t bleed out in the Middle East’ policies that he ran on in 2024. 

The Daily Mail has reached out to the White House for comment.  

Kent, who served under Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, accused the President of reneging on the non-interventionist principles he campaigned on.

Kent, who deployed to combat 11 times and lost his wife Shannon in what he calls a war manufactured by Israel, is closely aligned with the populist ‘America First’ wing of the Trump administration, including Gabbard and Vice President JD Vance, who have both warned against new Middle East entanglements

Smoke rises after airstrikes in Tehran, Iran

‘Until June of 2025, you understood that the wars in the Middle East were a trap that robbed America of the precious lives of our patriots and depleted the wealth and prosperity of our nation,’ the former Army Special Forces soldier wrote in his resignation letter. 

‘The time for bold action is now. You can reverse course and chart a new path for our nation, or you can allow us to slip further toward decline and chaos. You hold the cards.’ 

President Trump dismissed his argument when asked about it Tuesday, calling it a ‘good thing that [Kent’s] out,’ adding he was ‘very weak on security.’ 

Kent, who deployed to combat 11 times and lost his wife Shannon in what he calls a war manufactured by Israel, is closely aligned with the populist ‘America First’ wing of the Trump administration, including Gabbard and Vice President JD Vance, who have both warned against new Middle East entanglements. 

His resignation lays bare a widening split inside Trumpworld. Kent accused high-ranking Israeli officials and members of the American media of running a ‘misinformation campaign’ to deceive the President into believing Iran posed an imminent threat, drawing a direct parallel to the lead-up to the Iraq war. 

The divide pits the Gabbard-Vance non-interventionist faction against hawkish Republicans who back US support for Israel and a harder line on Tehran. 

Trump’s ongoing war has spiraled across the Middle East, leading to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and deaths of 13 troops with hundreds more injured across seven countries. 

Gas prices have surged to an average of $3.80 a gallon from $2.90 before the conflict began three weeks ago, while the narrow strait – through which a fifth of the world’s oil flows – remains blocked by the threat of Iranian mines and missiles. 

Kent warned that the next supreme leader of Iran that replaces Ali Khamenei will be ‘more radical,’ claiming that Ayatollah Khamenei ‘was preventing them from getting a nuclear weapon’

Kent is seen as a key ally of Vance, as both built their political careers opposing foreign wars and championing Trump’s ‘America First’ principles. 

His foreign policy views were also backed by Gabbard, who is believed to be on the outs of Trump’s inner circle following his decision to launch the war.

Kent’s decision to blame Israel for lobbying Trump to launch the war against Iran underscores a growing divide within the GOP over support for the US Middle Eastern ally.

The resignation drew immediate praise from prominent ‘America First’ voices. Marjorie Taylor Greene called Kent ‘a great American hero,’ while Candace Owens went further, declaring Trump ‘a shameful President’ and calling on US troops to explore conscientious objection, calling Kent a ‘patriot’. 

Not everyone was sympathetic. Pro-Israel activist Laura Loomer called Kent a ‘notorious leaker’ and predicted Gabbard would be next to go, claiming the resignation was timed to overshadow Gabbard’s scheduled testimony before two Congressional intelligence committees.

Loomer, who has previously clashed with Kent after he suggested she was a Mossad spy, described him as a ‘Tucker Carlson acolyte who undermines President Trump every chance he gets.’

Kent, 45, has a decorated military career spanning two decades in US Special Forces. He later joined the Central Intelligence Agency as a paramilitary officer following 11 combat tours in Iraq.

His wife, Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Shannon Kent, was killed in a suicide bombing while serving in Syria. The couple had two young children.

Following his wife’s death, Kent launched his political career advocating against military intervention in the Middle East.

Kent ran for Congress in February 2021 in Washington against Republican Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler, one of ten House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump after the January 6 Capitol riot.

After a tough primary, Kent won the Republican nomination with the endorsement of Trump, but lost the general election against Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez. He ran again in the same district in 2024 but lost again. 

Kent’s 2021 campaign received financial support from Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel.

Thiel, at the time, also provided monetary support to other Republican figures during the 2021 GOP primaries, including Vance in Ohio.