Joe Kent's Exit Complicates Things for Trump Administration

The most prominent defector from the administration since the conflict began, Kent is now counterprogramming the war effort in real time. “The task at hand,” he said, “is stopping us from getting deeper into this quagmire.”

The administration had already moved to discredit Kent and minimize the role he played in the administration. Trump told reporters Tuesday that his departure was “a good thing” because he did not believe that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt later said that claims the former official made on his way out the door were at once “laughable” and “insulting.”

Kent repeated and defended many of them during a nearly two-hour interview with Carlson.

“The Israelis drove the decision to take this action which we knew would set off a series of events, meaning the Iranians would retaliate,” he said, repeating an allegation that the president has previously denied. He also argued that the Israelis had successfully “shifted the red line” from preventing the development of nuclear weapons to stopping the enrichment of uranium entirely. He told Carlson that he had seen no intelligence during his time as director of the National Counterterrorism Center that Iran posed an “imminent threat.”

The interview complicates administration efforts to maintain the Trump coalition and corral public support for the still-new conflict as consequences from that war begin to be felt stateside. Thirteen US servicemembers have died in the conflict. Markets have been rattled, and the average cost of a gallon of gas is now nearing $4.00. Kent shows no signs of slowing down: He has already agreed to an interview with Mark Levin, the nationally syndicated radio host and staunch advocate for Operation Epic Fury.

Less than three weeks into the conflict, Kent is quickly becoming the public face of the anti-war effort. His resignation letter has been viewed nearly 100 million times on X, and he is the subject of both attacks and praise from disparate corners of the right. He is not alone, however.

Another advisor to the president, David Sacks, publicly called on Trump to “declare victory and get out” of Iran, warning that a prolonged conflict could lead to a nuclear exchange between Israel and Iran. Trump dismissed that apocalyptic possibility and an early off ramp, telling RealClearPolitics earlier this week that “we want to have it ended so that another president doesn’t have to.”

Vice President JD Vance told reporters that he welcomes dissent and the Kent resignation. “It’s fine to disagree, but once the president makes a decision, it’s up to everybody who serves in his administration to make it as successful as possible,” he said during a trip to Michigan.

“That’s how I do my job,” added Vance, who previously built his political career, in large part, on skepticism of foreign wars.

An army veteran who deployed to Iraq, Kent shared those views and rose to prominence as a vocal critic of the global war on terror. His reprisal of that role creates a headache for an administration eager to maintain the political movement that retuned Trump to the White House on his promise to start “no new wars.” But allies of the administration argue that there has not been anything approaching a “break” in the MAGA movement, only a hairline fracture.

“Kent represents a very small, loud, and niche element of that coalition,” said Alexander Gray, who served as chief of staff of the White House National Security Council during the first Trump administration. “They oftentimes punch above their weight in terms of their representation in media, and in certain roles inside the administration,” he said of the anti-interventionists in the Republican ranks, “but that group has never been ascendant.”

“What I think people have misunderstood is that the coalition can be very diverse and have lots of different strands to it,” Gray explained, pointing to the fact that the modern GOP includes both hawks and doves alike. “But Trump himself has never been and never will be an isolationist. He has assembled this diverse group, but his instincts are Jacksonian.”

Kent saw in MAGA the possibility of a realignment where Republicans lost their appetite for foreign wars. He ran for Congress twice and received Trump’s endorsement both times. During an October 2024 tele-town hall, the president urged voters to support the candidate, in large part, because “we’re at the closest we’ve ever been to World War III” and with Kent in Congress “we’re going to restore peace through strength.” Even as the Washington state Republican came up short on Election Day, he raised his national profile, in large part due to frequent appearances on numerous right-wing podcasts.

He became a favorite guest on the programming of Steve Bannon, Shawn Ryan, and Donald Trump Jr. The son of the president heralded him during an April 2023 interview as “a hero” who understands “the pitfalls of our never-ending wars.”

Recalling the strike that killed Qasem Soleimani, the top Iranian military commander, Kent praised Trump during a September 2023 episode for being “surgical” and avoiding a larger war despite calls to escalate. Avoiding escalation carried a political price for his father, Trump Jr. quipped, “because the cost of one Hellfire missile is not nearly enough [to fund] the retirement of hundreds of deep state generals.”

As Kent returns to the limelight, sources close to the president complain that he should never have been brought into the administration in the first place. “He’s a card-carrying member of the very loud, but small, isolationist right,” said one source familiar with White House thinking. “A sizable online following makes you feel self-important,” they added, “then that turns into main-character syndrome.”

While the nation is broadly split on the question of war with Iran, GOP voters are overwhelmingly supportive. A recent Quinnipiac poll found that 85% of Republicans support the strikes. But the conflict is still new. Public opinion will hinge on success or failure. In the meantime, Trump allies like Steve Bannon, who served as chief strategist during the president’s first term, have warned that the White House must do more to explain their reasons for war. “Now that Joe Kent has put this out,” Bannon said on his “War Room” podcast Monday, “it’s not going away. This is going to be serious.”

One consequence of Kent’s defection: It may trigger a reevaluation of hiring and firing. “There will be finger-pointing and soul searching in the White House over how these staffing decisions are made,” said a second source familiar with administration thinking. “There are plenty of other people, like Joe Kent, who are upper- and mid-level and who are in there with those same views.”

There was a time when Kent was heralded as the future of the Republican party because of his skepticism of foreign entanglements.

“A cadre of liberal internationalists and top brass at the military have a new charge these days,” Saurabh Sharma, then the president of the conservative organization American Moment and now special assistant to the president told Kent in the summer of 2021, “which is, it seems, making sure people like you never happen again.”