Top Counterterrorism Official Joe Kent Resigns Over Iran War As NATO Allies Also Reject Trump
President Donald Trump is finding it to be quite lonely on the battlefront, now that his deadly and expensive strike on Iran is growing increasingly unpopular, and losing him allies, both abroad and, apparently, within his own administration.
On Tuesday, the man Trump appointed as a top counterterrorism official resigned over the administration’s war in Iran, and now the president is responding by calling the man he put in the position “weak,” and claiming he never had much confidence in him in the first place.
Now-former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center Joe Kent announced his resignation Tuesday, saying he “cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran.”
“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,” Kent tweeted, along with a screenshot of his resignation letter.
Kent ended his tweet by stating what an “honor” it had been to serve the president. And to his credit, Trump seemed to have tried to be a little more cordial to Kent than he usually is towards political rivals or any sycophant of his who fails to kiss the ring — but then the president reverted back to his usual self, and insulted Kent before distancing himself from him.
“I always thought he was a nice guy but I always thought he was weak on security,” Trump told reporters of Kent on Tuesday. “I didn’t know him well.”
Now, a world leader who wasn’t as lacking in self-awareness as our current commander in chief would probably hesitate to admit on camera that the man he appointed as a top security official was someone he knew nothing of, except that he was “weak on security.” A more introspective president would have understood that an admission like that wouldn’t save him any face but would make him look woefully incompetent.
Don’t get me wrong — Joe Kent is trash.
This is the man who spoke at a “Justice for J6” rally in 2021 and referred to Jan. 6 rioters as “political prisoners.”
Ironically, during that same speech, Kent said this, according to NBC News:
“Our fellow citizens, when their constitutional rights are taken, if we do not speak out against that we are guilty of standing by and watching those rights erode. Make no mistake: What governments do overseas they will do here, and they’ve already started.”
Five years later, Kent is leaving his own government because of “what governments do overseas.”
Anyway, back to Trump.
Kent’s resignation comes on the heels of Trump’s failed attempts to get on NATO and other nations on board to help out in a war neither he nor Israeli officials consulted them in or even warned them about before beginning to launch missile strikes. Specifically, Trump asked — sorry — demanded that these nations help in the effort to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which the Times described as a “narrow passageway out of the Persian Gulf,” that “is both vital — serving as the only gateway to the rest of the world for huge amounts of oil and natural gas — and extremely vulnerable to attacks.”
From PBS News:
“I’m demanding that these countries come in and protect their own territory, because it is their own territory,” Trump said about the strait, claiming the shipping channel is not something the United States needs because of its own access to oil. Trump spoke while answering reporters’ questions as he flew back to Washington from Florida aboard Air Force One.
Trump said China gets about 90% of its oil from the strait, while the U.S. gets a minimal amount. He declined to discuss whether China will join the coalition.
“It would be nice to have other countries police that with us, and we’ll help. We’ll work with them,” Trump said. Previously, he has appealed to China, France, Japan, South Korea and Britain.
Imagine begging China to help bail you out of an international calamity you created after spending the last year or so casting constant aspersions on the nation and making it one of the main focal points of your stupid-ass failure of a tariff war.
But the fact is, virtually every nation that has responded to Trump’s call to join his war of choice has rejected the invitation — sorry — demand, saying, “This is not our war,” and echoing many of the same sentiments Kent did, regarding whose at fault for starting the conflict in the first place. (Again, it probably didn’t help that Trump is constantly insulting other nations, including the time he alienated NATO allies by basically calling them useless during the UN General Assembly months ago.)
So, of course, Trump has responded to the rejection by claiming he never needed anyone’s help in the first place.
“We don’t need too much help,” Trump said in the Oval Office, where he was hosting Ireland’s Taoiseach for St. Patrick’s Day, according to CNN. “We don’t need any help, actually.”
But he’s still mad enough at NATO that he’s threatening to pull the U.S. out of the alliance, claiming that he doesn’t need Congress to do it, which, of course, he does.
You’re losing all the friends you never really had, Trumpy. Maybe stop making enemies out of everyone before starting fresh wars that result in you begging for allies.
Just a thought.
SEE ALSO:
First 6 Days Of War On Iran Cost US $11.3B, Pentagon Says
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From Groceries To Cyberattacks: How The Iran War Is Affecting The US