Trump's ex-aide Joe Kent makes explosive claim on Iran war; says US acted on Israeli pressure

Former US counterterrorism chief Joe Kent has accused Israel of pushing Washington into the Iran war, alleging that the White House acted without credible intelligence suggesting Tehran posed an imminent nuclear threat. Kent, who resigned this week in protest, delivered the explosive claims in an interview with podcaster Tucker Carlson, intensifying political turmoil around President Donald Trump’s handling of the conflict.

Kent said the war decision was not prompted by urgent US security concerns, but by Israeli pressure, asserting that intelligence assessments did not support Trump’s assertion that Iran was close to developing a nuclear weapon.

Kent says Israel pushed the US into war

In the interview, Kent alleged that “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 claimed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government “felt emboldened” that they could initiate military action knowing the US would be compelled to respond.

Speaking to Carlson, Kent went further: “So, the imminent threat was not from Iran, it’s from Israel.”

He argued that Washington had the power to stop the escalation but chose not to. “We could have simply said to the Israelis, no, you will not,” he said.

No intelligence Iran was developing nuclear weapons

Kent directly contradicted Trump’s repeated claims that Tehran was “weeks away” from building a nuclear weapon, saying the administration had no evidence to support such a conclusion.

“That just simply did not exist,” Kent said of the alleged nuclear threat. He added: “No. They weren’t three weeks ago when this started, and they weren’t in June either.”

Kent said that since 2004, Iran’s Islamic authorities have adhered to a religious edict forbidding nuclear weapons.

“We had no intelligence to indicate that fatwa was being disobeyed,” he said, calling Iran’s approach “actually pretty pragmatic.”

Watch full interview:

Killing of Ayatollah Khamenei ‘did not help the US’

Kent also argued that the assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei strengthened Tehran’s hardliners rather than weakening the regime.

“I don’t think the Ayatollah feared dying… because he knew if he were killed, the regime would survive,” he said.

Washington pushes back, denies foreign influence

The White House swiftly rejected Kent’s allegations, insisting that Trump acted solely in the interest of the United States.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said claims that the president was swayed by any foreign power were “falsehoods.”

“Nobody tells him what to do. He makes decisions based on what's in the best interest of this country,” she said.

Vice President JD Vance defended the administration as well, saying officials who disagree with policy should step aside. “Nobody likes war,” he said, adding that Trump was not seeking prolonged conflict.

Trump himself dismissed Kent’s departure as insignificant, insisting Iran remained a serious threat.

Claims deepen debate over the origins of the Iran war

Kent maintained that US officials misinterpreted available intelligence and exaggerated the danger posed by Tehran.

“There was no intelligence that said the Iranians are going to launch this big sneak attack… there was none of that intelligence,” he said.

He criticised earlier comments from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who had suggested Iranian retaliation was expected if Israel acted. Kent said this line of reasoning was based on faulty assumptions.

He also alleged that political forces within the US played a role. “It just shows that there was a lobby pushing for us to go to war,” he said.

Kent resigned a day before his interview, saying he could not support a war when “Iran posed no imminent threat” and the conflict was driven by “pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”