Joe Kent Quit Because Iran ‘Posed No Imminent Threat to Our Nation’

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On Tuesday, the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Joe Kent, abruptly resigned, explaining that he was doing so because “I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. 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.”

As Lloyd Billingsley pointed out at FrontPage Wednesday, this represented a complete turnaround from Kent’s earlier stated position, as Kent wrote in 2020: “I personally think we should have crushed their ballistic & nuke capes [capabilities], but Trump has a plan, he has definitely earned the confidence of any clear eyed observer.” Clearly, Kent thought at that time that the Islamic Republic of Iran posted an imminent threat to our nation, and he was right.

In fact, the day before Kent resigned, President Donald Trump spoke on the question of whether the Islamic Republic of Iran posed any imminent threat, and came down squarely on the side of those, like the 2020 version of Joe Kent, maintain that it did.Trump explained why it was necessary to strike Iran:

When they say “Death to America,” you should believe them, ‘cause that’s what they would have — if they had a nuclear weapon, they would’ve used it, but they never had the chance. I never gave them the chance to use it.

And other presidents should have done — I spoke to one of the former presidents, who I actually like. I actually speakto some. I do like some people — it’d be shocking. And he said, “I wish I did what you did.” Couldn’t have done it. Other presidents, somebody should have done it. 47 years this went on.

They call Iran “the bully of the Middle East.” And you could have never had the Abraham Accords, you could never have had peace in the Middle East, now you’re gonnahave peace. You could never do it with a dark cloud of a nuclear Iran. But Iran is a shell of itself, it’s no longer a bully, it’s the one that gets bullied, it’s the bully that got beat up. We beat the crap out of them — and they deserve that.

And it’s true: when the mullahs chant “Death to America” and force their people to do so, it’s not just empty braggadocio. Back in November 2023, during a nationally televised address, the now-dead supreme leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, declared: “The situation between America and Iran is this: When you chant ‘Death to America!’ it is not just a slogan – it is a policy.”

For years, the Islamic Republic has acted as if “Death to America” were indeed the regime’s policy. One way it did so was by trying to kill Trump. In Nov. 2024, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps operative, Farhad Shakeri, was indicted for plotting to kill Trump. The Islamic Republic has also worked to destabilize the West, funding a far-left political party in Spain, and has even extended its operations into the Western hemisphere, working with Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, attempting to gain a North American foothold it could eventually use to strike at the U.S.

The Complete Infidel’s Guide to Iran shows that striking at the U.S. has been the Islamic Republic’s goal for years. On February 11, 2014, Iranian Chief of Staff Hassan Firouzabadi said: “Iran is prepared for the decisive war against the U.S. and the Zionist regime…. Iran has been making plans, conducting maneuvers, and preparing its forces for this battle for years now.”

In May 2015, Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commander Hossein Salami took the threats to another level, saying: “We welcome war with the U.S. as we do believe that it will be the scene for our success to display the real potentials of our power.”

Ultimately, Salami got his war. He was killed in it during the Israeli airstrikes in June 2025. It is clear that as long as it is able to do so, the Islamic Republic will continue to pursue its goal,the destruction of the U.S., as well as Israel.

Joe Kent used to know all this, and at least he seemed to do so, but under whatever influence or pressure he is experiencing, he has forgotten it all now. The bloodthirsty rulers of the Islamic Republic of Iran, however, have not.