Trump’s War on Iran.

Suddenly Trump is happy to lose the man he hand-picked to head Counterterrorism.

Top Trump counterterror adviser resigns over Iran war: 'No imminent threat'

Trump, reacting to Kent's resignation, said, "It's a good thing that he's out."

Top Trump counterterror adviser resigns over Iran war: 'No imminent threat'

The Trump administration's top counterterrorism official, Joe Kent, announced his resignation Tuesday over opposition to the Iran war, becoming the highest-profile administration official to step down publicly over the conflict.

In a resignation letter posted publicly on social media, Kent said he could not "in good conscience" support the war, now in its third week.

"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, who served as the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, wrote.

In a lengthy statement on X, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt forcefully rejected Kent's claim that Iran posed "no imminent threat" to the United States, calling it "the same false claim that Democrats and some in the liberal media have been repeating over and over."

Leavitt said Trump had "strong and compelling evidence" that Iran was preparing to attack the U.S. first and argued that the decision to strike was based on intelligence from "many sources and factors."

The White House press secretary also pushed back on Kent's suggestion that Trump was pressured by Israel or other voices into the conflict, an "absurd allegation" and that it was "insulting and laughable.”

President Donald Trump speaks as he meets with Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin at the White House in Washington, March 17, 2026.

ABC News has reached out to several Israeli officials for comment.

The National Counterterrorism Center is housed within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, led by Tulsi Gabbard.

Gabbard on Tuesday publicly backed Trump's authority to determine what constitutes an imminent threat on the war.

"As our Commander in Chief, he is responsible for determining what is and is not an imminent threat, and whether or not to take action he deems necessary to protect the safety and security of our troops, the American people and our country," Gabbard wrote on X.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard speaks during an event where President Donald Trump delivered an announcement on his Homeland Security Task Force at the White House, October 23, 2025 in Washington.

Gabbard stopped short of directly addressing Kent's resignation, or Kent by name.

"The Office of the Director of National Intelligence is responsible for helping coordinate and integrate all intelligence to provide the President and Commander in Chief with the best information available to inform his decisions," she said.

"After carefully reviewing all the information before him, President Trump concluded that the terrorist Islamist regime in Iran posed an imminent threat and he took action based on that conclusion," Gabbard added.

ODNI says Kent oversaw the U.S. counterterrorism and counternarcotics enterprise and, according to his biography, he served as the principal counterterrorism adviser to the president.

Kent is a combat veteran who served more than 20 years in the U.S. Army and completed 11 combat deployments in the Middle East.

Before joining the Trump administration, he ran two unsuccessful campaigns for Congress. During his 2022 congressional run, Kent faced backlash over his associations with far-right figures, including Nick Fuentes. In social media posts at the time, Kent said he did not want Fuentes' endorsement and later wrote that he did not want "Fuentes's endorsement due his focus on race/religion" and that Fuentes' message was "not my message of inclusive populism."

Several Jewish groups condemned Kent's remarks in his resignation letter, calling them "antisemitic tropes."

In a post to X, the Anti-Defamation League said, "ADL opposed Joe Kent’s nomination to run NCTC because of his history of antisemitism and extremism. So it’s no surprise that he would blame Israel and the media for pushing the President into war against the Iranian regime. These accusations traffic in old-age antisemitic tropes. And, as we have seen over the past few weeks, they aren’t just slanderous -- they’re potentially dangerous.

Kent also drew scrutiny for remarks about Jan. 6, 2021, and for appearing at a 2021 "Justice for J6" rally, where he defended the constitutional rights of those arrested and warned against what he described as the erosion of due process.

Kent was confirmed as director of the National Counterterrorism Center in a narrow 52-44 vote in the Senate last July.

Kent invoked a deeply personal loss in explaining his decision to step down: he is a Gold Star husband whose late wife, Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Shannon Kent, was killed in action during a suicide bombing while serving in Syria in 2019.

In his resignation letter, Kent wrote, "As a veteran who deployed to combat 11 times and as a Gold Star husband who lost my beloved wife Shannon in a war manufactured by Israel, I cannot support sending the next generation off to fight and die in a war that serves no benefit to the American people nor justifies the cost of American lives."

Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said he strongly disagreed with some of Kent's views over the years 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."

"Ignoring the facts to pursue a predetermined war puts American lives at risk and undermines our national security," Warner said in a statement. "The United States cannot be led into conflict on the basis of politics, impulse, or a president's desire for confrontation. We have seen where this road leads before."

House Speaker Mike Johnson pushed back on Kent's assessment of the U.S. operation against Iran, saying he is "clearly wrong."

"I'm on the Gang of Eight. I got all the briefings. We all understood there was clearly an imminent threat that Iran was very close to the enrichment nuclear capability, and they were building missiles at a pace that no one in the region could keep up with," Johnson told reporters at a news conference.

Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he thanked Kent for his service and his family's sacrifice, but rejected Kent's argument that Iran posed no imminent threat, calling it a "misguided assessment."

Cotton said "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." (ABC News)

Trump changes his tune on why he started the war. Here is a new one.👇

He also keeps proclaiming everyone supports his war.

He doesn’t have a plan, or a clue.

Trump’s War, Gas and the Economy.

Gasoline prices are still rising as the Iran war stretches into its third week

A person's hand grips a gas pump nozzle at a gas station. A digital display on the gas pump says regular gas is $5.29.

A customer fuels up with regular gasoline priced at $5.29 at a Chevron gas station in Bellevue, Wash., on March 13.

Global crude oil prices have been volatile over the last few weeks following the U.S. and Israel's attack on Iran. They spiked to nearly $120 a barrel about a week after the war began and then fell to around $100, where they have been hovering for several days. Before the war, oil was closer to $70 a barrel.

U.S. gasoline prices, on the other hand, have gone in only one direction: up. And up. And up.

Prices at the pump are currently averaging $3.718 a gallon, according to the latest data from the American Automobile Association (AAA), which tracks prices nationwide. That's up nearly 80 cents from a month ago.

Diesel prices, meanwhile, have grown even more sharply. Diesel is just under $5 a gallon, according to AAA, $1.34 higher than last month.

A map from tracking site MarineTraffic shows ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

WATCH: How traffic dried up in the Strait of Hormuz since the Iran war began

Global oil supplies are experiencing their worst disruption in decades, thanks to a sharp decrease in ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial waterway through which about 20% of the world's oil traffic typically passes, as well as attacks by both sides on critical oil infrastructure.

Prices are still lower than they were in 2022, when Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine sent them soaring.

But they could continue to rise.

"Until we see a meaningful resumption of oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, upward pressure on fuel prices is likely to persist," Patrick De Haan, the head of petroleum analysis at the app GasBuddy, wrote in a note on Monday. "At the same time, seasonal forces are beginning to intensify as several regions complete the transition to summer gasoline, creating a double headwind that could continue driving pump prices higher in the weeks ahead."

Summer gasoline is a reformulated blend, required by the Clean Air Act, that is less volatile, which leads to less air pollution during the warmer summer months.

Higher gasoline prices put pressure on household budgets, particularly for lower-income Americans. Higher diesel prices have an inflationary impact on nearly all goods in the economy, because diesel is used to power farm equipment, construction equipment, and the trucks, the ships and many of the trains that carry goods around the world.

President Trump has said that while gasoline prices are higher now, they will come down quickly when the war is over. He has also commented that because the U.S. is the world's largest oil producer, "We make a lot of money" when oil prices go up.

Oil and gas prices are soaring. Some countries are ready with solar panels and EVs

Higher oil prices have other economic implications. For one thing, they incentivize companies and countries to invest more heavily in alternatives to oil, like solar power, batteries and electric vehicles, which become more economically competitive when oil becomes more expensive and which offer protection against the volatility of fossil fuel markets. In the long run, that's positive for efforts to fight climate change and air pollution — and negative for oil producers. The oil cartel OPEC actively avoids pushing oil prices too high, in part because of the risk it poses to long-term oil demand.

International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol speaks in Brussels on Friday during a media conference regarding recent developments in global energy markets.

Countries agree to a historic release of stockpiled oil to ease global disruption

In an attempt to calm markets, last week the International Energy Agency, an organization representing the world's largest oil consumers, announced its largest-ever release of crude oil from national stockpiles, including 172 million barrels from the United States' Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Still, after that announcement, oil prices continued to rise. (NPR)

Some places have really seen high, high gas prices.

Diesel fuel which trucks use has hit $5. That affects everything.

Trump and his Republican enabler know if there are fair elections, they will lose the Midterms, so they are trying to pass the Save America Act to disenfranchise millions of voters, especially women voters.

Taking rights away from women is not incidental to the agenda on the Right. Women voters are in the sight line of the Heritage Society.

Trump doesn’t stop pushing for this anti-democracy bill or threatening those who thwart him.

Minority Leader Schumer made clear where the Democrats stand.

Except, of course, this one.

Some Republicans will join the opposition to Save.

Keep your calls going to Senators to stop Save.A U.S. Capitol Switchboard operator can connect you directly with the specific Senate office. (202) 224-3121.

Last night was big for JB Pritzker.

Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton Will soon be Senator Juliana Stratton from the great sate of Illinois.

One more thing.

CBS is losing.

Last night, PBS began to show a great documentary about a great leader.

Catch it if you can.