The counter-terrorism official who resigned from Donald Trump’s administration over the US and Israel’s war against Iran has said he is bracing for political retribution – but would do it all again anyway. Kent has also been accused of peddling antisemitic tropes in blaming an “Israeli lobby” for the Iran conflict. Kent said that “by saying that”, it “basically short-circuited the negotiations” over the future of Iran’s nuclear program. “We knew they would, and when they did come back, that is when I saw, from my perspective, the robust debates kind of go away, and there was a much smaller group of advisers around President Trump,” Kent said. And again, he added: “It goes back to the official engagement from the Israelis then echoed by the pro-Israel media heads that were in Trump’s media diet”.

Source: The Guardian March 21, 2026 20:13 UTC