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“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.” With those words, posted on X on March 17, Joe Kent became the highest-ranking official to resign from U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration over the U.S.-Israel war on Iran. Mr. Trump immediately dismissed him as “weak on security” and called his departure “a good thing”.
Mr. Kent’s exit as Mr. Trump’s National Counterterrorism chief has spotlighted simmering tensions inside the MAGA coalition as the conflict, now in its fourth week, tests interpretations of ‘America First’.
The tension surfaced early. When the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28, the response from Mr. Trump’s most loyal media ecosystem was not uniform. Tucker Carlson, who had personally lobbied Mr. Trump against attacking Iran, went public with his opposition, questioning whether the campaign served American interests or risked repeating the long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican Congresswoman who recently resigned, was blunt, too. “We voted for America First and ZERO wars,” she said. Publicly, support remains strong. Polls show 77-90% of Republican and self-identified MAGA voters back the Iran action. But some of the movement’s most visible voices, including Mr. Kent, have begun to ask whether this war was ever part of the deal.
Joe Kent | The rebel within
Joe Kent resigns as National Counterterrorism chief, criticizing U.S.-Israel war on Iran and highlighting tensions within the MAGA coalition.
