{"id":122429,"date":"2026-05-20T04:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T04:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/122429\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T04:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T04:28:08","slug":"joe-kent-trump-cant-end-war-until-israel-taken-out-of-the-loop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/122429\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Kent: Trump can’t end war until Israel taken out of the loop"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the Iran<\/a> war began, the Trump administration<\/a> told the American people that if the U.S. did not attack and assassinate Iran’s leadership, the Islamic Republic could soon be launching missiles at U.S. cities<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now, as Americans absorb skyrocketing prices and note the grim inflation<\/a>, fuel, and food supply forecasts<\/a>, Trump and his surrogates in Congress and the media<\/a> are ramping up the rhetoric. It goes something like this: Main Street America must accept the \u201ctrade off\u201d and sacrifice affordability or face a \u201c lunatic dropping a nuclear weapon on us.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Joe Kent<\/a>, who led the National Counterterrorism Center before resigning in protest<\/a> of Trump\u2019s Iran war policy, continues to call out what he deems a desperate attempt to maintain<\/a> support for a terrible mistake. He says Iran never posed an imminent threat to the U.S. before the war. Kent, who is the highest-ranking member of the Trump administration to resign over the war, is also a U.S. combat veteran (11 tours primarily in Iraq), former CIA paramilitary, and a MAGA conservative.<\/p>\n

In a wide-ranging interview with Responsible Statecraft, Kent pointed out that, days before the U.S. cut off talks with Iran and started bombing its nuclear facilities last June, his boss, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, testified <\/a>that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon. This jibes with assessments during the Biden administration and earlier intelligence community briefings<\/a> dating back two decades<\/a>, which all say there is no evidence Iran restarted its nuclear weapons program since 2003. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no reason to trust their (Iranians’) word, but every bit of evidence we had for verification showed that they weren’t developing a nuclear weapon,” Kent told RS. “Even at their height, if they wanted to break out and develop a nuclear weapon, that timetable was anywhere from several months to several years to develop the weapon itself, but then you still have a major issue with delivery.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea that they could put a nuclear weapon on a ballistic missile system and get it to America, it’s just preposterous,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd again, too, why would they do that? Because it would immediately mean that we would wipe them off face the earth,\u201d he added. \u201cSo that argument in itself, I just think, is absolutely preposterous. It just shows to me how desperate the administration is to have any kind of narrative that they can sell to the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kent pointed to new polling on Monday<\/a> that shows the majority of Americans oppose the war. While that only includes 22% of Republicans, the longer the Hormuz Strait is closed and economic conditions fray here in the U.S, the softer Trump\u2019s base of support becomes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think, like, every penny it goes up at the pump, and every day it goes on longer, he’s going to lose more and more of those Republican voters,\u201d Kent said, adding that prominent MAGA voices who oppose the war are \u201ckind of giving permission for other people to say, ‘Oh yeah, okay, I’m not for this.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, it will be one heck of a battle. Seven-term Rep. Thomas Massie, (R-Ky.) lost his primary Tuesday night after a grueling race in which his opponent Ed Gallrein was backed by Trump and pro-Israel billionaires eager to get the anti-Iran war, anti-Israel aid Massie off the playing field.<\/p>\n

“He walks out of this with his honor intact,” Kent posted last night<\/a>. “He\u2019s a patriot & kept his integrity. As long as the voters give their votes to whoever can run the most ads we will have politicians who are purchased by foreign governments & corporate interests.”<\/p>\n

\u2018Every time it\u2019s been the Israelis\u2019<\/p>\n

In his resignation letter, Kent said that early in this second Trump administration, \u201chigh-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media deployed a misinformation campaign\u201d that \u201csowed pro-war sentiments to encourage a war with Iran.\u201d Kent was immediately accused of antisemitism. He maintains that the Israelis have divergent interests and that, when the administration was close to getting a deal with Iran in June 2025, they convinced Trump to abandon talks and pursue regime change.<\/p>\n

This was borne out in an explosive New York Times “reconstruction”<\/a> of Trump\u2019s path to the most recent war on Feb. 28. In it, the paper notes that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s four trips to the U.S. from July through December 2025 paid off. \u201cThe U.S. decision to strike Iran was a victory for Mr. Netanyahu, who had been pushing Mr. Trump for months on the need to hit what he argued was a weakened regime.\u201d<\/p>\n

During that period, Kent contends that the DNI started getting sidelined, which was also borne out in reporting at the time<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the 12-day war, after Midnight Hammer, it seemed like the (Trump) circle shrunk down to just the president and a handful of advisers,” he said. Once Operation Epic Fury began, he claimed, \u201c(we) worked diligently for two weeks trying to present the President with kind of off-ramps, but our ideas really weren’t even reaching the White House.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kent said the Israelis, to their credit, \u201chave always, in my experience with them, since January of 2025 when we came in the administration, they’ve been very upfront about what they wanted. They never came to us and said, like, ‘we just want to make sure Iran doesn’t get a nuclear weapon.’ No, they said, ‘This is the time for us to change out the Iranian regime.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Kent caused a stir just last week when he charged that the U.S. was on the cusp of getting a better deal than President Barack Obama\u2019s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action when Trump threw it all away to bomb Iran in June 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Iranians feared and respected Trump in a way they never respected Obama \u2014 he took out the terror mastermind (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Commander) Qasem Soleimani, yet was prudent enough not to get sucked into the quicksand of another Middle Eastern quagmire that would only favor Iran and strengthen its hardliners,\u201d he posted on X on May 13.<\/a><\/p>\n

Eight months after Operation Midnight Hammer, despite Trump\u2019s claims that Iranian nuclear sites had been \u201cobliterated,\u201d the Israelis helped to convince Trump the time was ripe to strike again as protests roiled the streets of Iran, according to press accounts.<\/a> Trump, feeling emboldened by the Venezuela<\/a> operation months before, made the final decision to move.<\/p>\n

Kent said it was a mistake that he felt he could no longer condone by staying in the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe killed the Supreme Leader, who had the prohibition on developing a nuclear weapon, who was able to withhold the proxies, killed him, killed (head of Iran\u2019s National Security Council Ali) Larijani, killed a bunch of the other Iranian moderates, and now we’re stuck with these hardliners,\u201d Kent said. \u201cThat was the Israeli strategy. It was very effective, and now we’re back in this situation. So, that’s why I’ve always said, in order for us to get ourselves out of the situation and get a deal with Iran, the first step has to be restraining the Israelis.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Kent posted on X, \u201cPresident Trump can still correct course,\u201d but he has to \u201cleverage the potential of sanctions relief to open the Strait of Hormuz<\/a> and secure a new deal on the nuclear issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

His advice was not taken so well by the White House, which claimed<\/a> that Kent\u2019s resignation letter and current comments were \u201criddled with lies.\u201d<\/p>\n

“Most egregious are Kent\u2019s false claims that the largest state sponsor of terrorism somehow did not pose a threat to the United States and that Israel<\/a> forced the President into launching Operation Epic Fury,\u201d the White House said in a statement to Fox News. \u201cPresident Trump\u2019s number one priority has always been ensuring the safety and security of the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the lack of messaging management has allowed for different narratives to peek through, like when Secretary of State Marco Rubio said<\/a> (then walked back) that the U.S. bombed on Feb. 28 because Israel was going to first, and a swift Iranian retaliation would be inevitable. More recently, Trump said the war in Iran was \u201cat the behest of allies<\/a>\u201d in Gulf. Even Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth admitted<\/a> Iran does not have the current capability to hit the U.S. with missiles.<\/p>\n

Kent\u2019s resignation and public criticisms of the administration\u2019s policies have drawn swift rebuke from detractors, who called his letter \u2014 which put more onus on Israel than the president for American actions, and suggests that Israel had pulled the U.S. into the 2003 Iraq War \u2014 \u201cvirulent anti-Semitism\u201d<\/a> (Sen. Mitch McConnell), deploying “ugly stuff that plays on the worst antisemitic tropes” (J Street’s Ilan Goldenberg<\/a>). Longstanding accusations of Kent indulging in January 6 conspiracy theories<\/a> and having extremist and Christian Nationalist \u201cassociations,\u201d which came up during his confirmation hearings last year<\/a>, soon resurfaced.<\/p>\n

\u201cOther people before me that said things like this had their entire lives ruined for it, because they were just immediately labeled as being horrible antisemites,\u201d he noted regarding his charges of Israeli influence on the government. Things have changed, he added. He stands behind what he says was his direct experience in the administration. \u201cI think with a younger generation that’s more active on social media and doing their own research\u2026 It’s just not sticking as much as it did, you know, in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

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