President Donald Trump seems unbothered about the resignation of Joe Kent as the United States Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, calling his exit “a good thing.”
Speaking on Tuesday, alongside the visiting Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin, the President said he read the statement by Kent, whom he thought was a nice guy but “weak on security.”
“I didn’t know him well, but I thought he seemed like a pretty nice guy,” he told reporters at the Oval. “It’s a good thing he’s out, because he said that Iran was not a threat.”
Trump restated that Iran was a threat, and “every country realized” agreed that it was, adding that, “The question is whether or not they wanted to do something about it.”
The leader again slammed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization for not supporting the war in Iran militarily, accusing it of failing to reciprocate America’s contributions to the alliance.
Expressing his disappointment, Trump revealed he had long wondered if NATO would be available if the U.S. needed its help: “NATO is making a very foolish mistake…This is a good test.”
In his resignation letter, Kent, a Gold Star veteran deployed to combat 11 times, said people were deceived into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat to America.
The former director alleged Israel influenced the U.S. decision to strike Iran, the same way the ally drew the U.S. “into the disastrous Iraq war” that claimed thousands of service members.
Kent advised the President against boots on the ground in Iran as he declared opposition to “sending the next generation to fight and die in a war that serves no benefit to the American people.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt accused Kent of “false claims,” describing his comment that Iran posed no imminent threat as the “same false claim” Democrats and others have been repeating.
In a post on X, Leavitt said President Trump deployed military assets because Iran sponsors terrorism, “killed Americans, and openly threatened us all the way up to the launch of Operation Epic Fury.”
Trump dismisses Joe Kent’s resignation over Iran war
