Joe Kent, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, resigned Tuesday over concerns about the war in Iran, becoming the first senior Trump administration official to leave because of the military operation. 

Mr. Kent said he could not “in good conscience” continue to do his job while the U.S. waged war in the Middle East, a war he said was out of step with President Trump’s America First agenda.

“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,” Mr. Kent said in a statement.

Mr. Trump pointed to “imminent threats” that he said directly endanger U.S. troops, bases overseas and allies.

“For these reasons, the United States military is undertaking a massive and ongoing operation to prevent this very wicked, radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core national security interests,” he said at the start of the war.

In a letter to Mr. Trump, Mr. Kent said that he still supports the values that the president campaigned on in 2016, 2020 and 2024.

“Until June of 2025, you understood that the wars in the Middle East were a trap that robbed America of the precious lives of our patriots and depleted the wealth and prosperity of our nation,” he said.

Mr. Kent said that in the president’s first term, Mr. Trump “understood better than any modern president” how to “decisively apply military power without getting us drawn into never-ending wars.”

But this administration does not reflect this, he said, citing “high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media” who deployed a misinformation campaign that “wholly undermined your America First platform and sowed pro-war sentiments to encourage a war with Iran.”

“This echo chamber was used to deceive you into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States, and that should you strike now, there was a clear path to a swift victory,” Mr. Kent said. “This was a lie and is the same tactic the Israelis used to draw us into the disastrous Iraq war that cost our nation the lives of thousands of our best men and women. We cannot make this mistake again.

The president’s “America First” agenda has come into question since he launched the military operation against Iran on Feb. 28, fueling worries that another open-ended Middle East conflict could hurt Republicans in November’s midterm elections.

The Washington Times reached out to the White House, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the National Counterterrorism Center for comment.

Mr. Kent also told the president that it is not too late to reverse course rather than allow the U.S. to “slip further toward decline and chaos.”

His role as director oversaw counterterrorism and counternarcotics activities and served as the principal counterterrorism advisor to the president.

He was appointed by Mr. Trump and confirmed by the Senate in July 2025. His confirmation was plagued by his promotion of far-right conspiracy theories, having refused to distance himself from them.

Sen. Mark Warner, vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, called Mr. Kent’s record “deeply troubling,” disagreeing with many of his views, except for the war in Iran.

“But on this point, he is right: there was no credible evidence of an imminent threat from Iran that would justify rushing the United States into another war of choice in the Middle East,” the Virginia Democrat said in a statement.