Joe Kent, the former counterterrorism director who resigned this week over the Iran strikes, said Wednesday that he and other senior officials with reservations about the airstrikes “were not allowed” to bring those concerns directly to President Donald Trump.
Speaking on Tucker Carlson’s program, Kent said Trump relied on a small circle of advisers when deciding to strike Iran and that Israel effectively pushed the U.S. into action despite, Kent said, a lack of evidence that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States.
“A good deal of key decision makers were not allowed to come and express their opinion to the president,” Kent told Carlson. “There wasn’t a robust debate.”
Kent’s remarks offer a glimpse into Trump’s February 28 decision to carry out strikes and highlight tensions that could split his political base. They also suggest dissent existed inside the administration over the attacks.
As head of the National Counterterrorism Center, Kent led the agency responsible for analyzing and detecting terrorist threats. His work reported to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who said Wednesday that determining whether Iran was a threat was Trump’s decision alone. Gabbard, a veteran and former congresswoman from Hawaii who has previously criticized talk of military strikes against Iran, has not publicly stated her view on the current strikes; her office declined to comment.
When asked, Kent would not identify who blocked his access to the president. He told Carlson there was no intelligence indicating Iran was pursuing nuclear weapons and said Israel compelled the U.S. to act by signaling it would move first, potentially risking U.S. interests. Kent accused Israeli officials and U.S. media figures of amplifying the threat narrative.
“The Israelis drove the decision to take this action,” he said, citing remarks from Secretary of State Marco Rubio and House Speaker Mike Johnson that, he claimed, reflected Israeli plans prompting U.S. action.
Kent, who has past ties to right-wing extremist circles, said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders lobbied Trump directly, often presenting information U.S. officials could not verify. His assertion that an “Israeli lobby” influenced the decision has drawn criticism from Jewish groups and others who said the claim bordered on antisemitism.
He chose to make these comments on Carlson’s show, where the host has also faced accusations of antisemitic rhetoric.
Trump has offered shifting explanations for the strikes and has pushed back against the notion that Israel compelled U.S. action. On Tuesday, he dismissed Kent’s critique, calling him “weak on security” and saying those in his administration who did not view Iran as a threat were not wanted. “They’re not smart people, or they’re not savvy people,” Trump said. “Iran was a tremendous threat.”
The White House did not immediately respond to questions about Kent’s interview.
Kent, 45, is a former Green Beret who served in 11 deployments before joining the CIA. His first wife, a Navy cryptologist, was killed by a suicide bomber in Syria in 2019, leaving him with two young sons; he has since remarried.
He told Carlson he resigned after concluding his warnings would be ignored. “I know this path that we’re on, it doesn’t work,” Kent said, adding, “I can’t be a part of this in good conscience.”
