On March 17, Joe Kent, director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, announced his resignation, becoming the first senior official in the Trump administration to resign due to the war with Iran.
In his open letter, Kent stated that Iran does not pose an "imminent threat" to the United States and accused Israeli officials and some media outlets of launching a disinformation campaign to drag the US into a Middle East war. He said the current situation deviates from Trump's "America First" foreign policy.
Kent, a former senior advisor to Tulsi Gabbard and with extensive experience serving in Middle Eastern theaters, stated in his resignation letter that he did not support drawing the United States back into a protracted conflict similar to the Iraq War, and called for a reassessment of the United States' war policy toward Iran.
