By: Cliff Kincaid
One can be a supporter of President Trump’s foreign policy, including the war on Iran, while questioning his appointments, one of which, Joseph Kent, was confirmed by the Senate as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center but then resigned in dramatic fashion by accusing Trump of being a puppet of Israel.
He claims Trump went to war under “pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby” and that his wife was killed in Syria “in a war manufactured by Israel.”
Kent, a decorated veteran appointed by Trump, served as the chief of staff to Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, whose background and qualifications were themselves subject to concern, even alarm. He was officially sworn in by Gabbard, who continues in her post. She swore an oath on the Hindu holy book, the Bhagavad Gita, rather than the U.S. Constitution, and had proposed a pardon for former CIA/NSA analyst Edward Snowden, who defected to Russia through Chinese Hong Kong.
The lesson of this fiasco is that being for Trump and serving the U.S. military are not sufficient qualifications for being in a position of trust around the president.
The only Republican Senator who voted against Kent was Senator Thom Tillis, a notorious Trump-hater who, in this case, had doubts about Kent that were proven to be justified.
Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) blasted Joe Kent as an anti-Semite, saying, “Good riddance. Iran has murdered more than a thousand Americans. Their EFP land mines were the deadliest in Iraq. Anti-Semitism is an evil I detest, and we surely don’t want it in our government.”
The publication Jewish Insider reported that Democrats who had previously slammed Kent as a right-wing extremist in opposing his nomination have now jumped on his “anti-Israel accusations” about Trump. The publication said he had “come under scrutiny for past links to white supremacists and neo-Nazis, promotion of conspiracy theories and echoing pro-Russia talking points” about the war in Ukraine.
The latter is the key to understanding why Kent was a bad choice.
Anybody familiar with Kent’s positions on the war in Ukraine was not surprised by his opposition to the war in Iran and could have seen this betrayal coming. He insisted the war was not a matter of self-defense by Ukraine, but rather a plot to provoke Russia.
Now he seems to view the war on Iran as a Jewish plot.
Some opponents of aid to Ukraine have been exposed as purveyors of an anti-Semitic theory based on the Protocols of Learned Elders of Zion, a Russian forgery designed to portray Jews as power-hungry and bent on world domination.
Some reports suggest Joe Kent believed Israel may have had a role in the murder of Charlie Kirk.
In Kent’s case, his defection has many possible explanations. His first wife, a Navy linguist, was killed in a 2019 suicide bombing in Syria.
On Monday, March 23, Trump said that he had supported making Kent, who had run twice for Congress as an “America First” Trump supporter, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center because he “felt badly” about Kent’s wife dying during that conflict.
Perhaps his wife’s death is somehow responsible for his change from serving the nation in the Middle East to opposing the war in Iran, another Middle East conflict. If so, he concealed his opposition to Israel in order to get confirmed and fooled a lot of people.
Journalist and Army veteran Marty Skovlund Jr., his co-author of the book called Send Me: The True Story Of A Mother At War, gave an interview, seemingly perplexed by his statements about Israel and the Jews exercising too much influence over U.S. policy and expressing concern that Kent was excluded from Iran policy decisions.
Asked whether Kent embraced an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory about Jews running the world, Skovlund said, “I don’t want to characterize what Joe said as anti-Semitic. And I know just based on our own conversations, he’s publicly defended Israel’s actions in the past before.”
He added that “I hope that he [Kent] was involved at a very deep level [in formulating policy]. But if he wasn’t, then there’s much bigger, more serious questions we need to be asking of the administration.”
Those questions remain. And they are also relevant to Tulsi Gabbard’s ascension to power in the Trump Administration.
Whatever the explanation, Kent, a veteran of Special Forces and a CIA Field Operative, now seems to have a left-wing view of the threat posed by America’s enemies, such as Iran and Russia. Iran has been a Russian client state in the Middle East and figures prominently in our book Red Jihad.
Before his appointment, he had been a guest on Tucker Carlson’s programs as well as Stephen K. Bannon’s “War Room” show on the Real America’s Voice channel, which celebrated his opposition to Ukraine’s war of self-defense against Russia.
However, Senator Tom Cotton, a top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, had also strongly supported Joe Kent’s 2025 nomination. He said, “Joe Kent has 20 years of military service and 11 combat deployments. He has dedicated his career to fighting terrorism and keeping Americans safe. I urge my Senate colleagues to confirm Joe Kent as our next NCTC Director.”
Cotton said, “Mr. Kent understands the grave threat that terrorism poses to the security and safety of Americans.”
After he resigned, Cotton said, “Joe Kent and his family have sacrificed greatly for our nation, and I thank him for his service. But I disagree with his misguided assessment. Iran’s vast missile arsenal and support for terrorism posed a grave and growing threat to America. Indeed, the ayatollahs have maimed and killed thousands of Americans. President Trump recognized this threat and made the right call to eliminate it.”
This is a flip-flop on Cotton’s part, but many in the media who previously regarded Joe Kent as a “political candidate with connections to right-wing extremists,” according to NPR, now celebrate him as a truth-teller and whistleblower.
Under fire as an alleged leaker after his resignation, Kent denied having leaked any information when pressed by conservative podcaster Mark Levin, but he is reportedly under investigation by the FBI.
Whatever the ultimate truth, his appointment raises serious questions about how he was nominated and whether he ever passed a background check by the FBI.
- Cliff Kincaid is president of America’s Survival, Inc. www.usasurvival.org
