When former National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent resigned on March 17, 2026 (https://www.npr.org/2026/03/17/nx-s1-5750426/joe-kent-counterterrorism-official-resigns-trump), it was big news. Kent’s walkout was attended by a sophisticated media rollout, with the former CIA official, Special Forces soldier and congressional candidate dismounting from office into a lengthy interview with Tucker Carlson (https://tuckercarlson.com/live-show-march-18-2026?success=true&utm_source=google&utm_medium=paid&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23698500950&gbraid=0AAAAAqhFXDMDYJvRyZvlhIOGS6OH-JSIw&gclid=CjwKCAjw-dfOBhAjEiwAq0RwI4lr6LoFiTrxbNImi9SzGf6XFHejPvic8SWvzNpn6qwX87v5CElU4hoCUoIQAvD_BwE). He spent the next day onstage at a “Catholic Prayer for America” conference (https://www.c-span.org/program/public-affairs-event/former-us-national-counterterrorism-center-director-remarks-at-catholic-prayer-gala/675925#:~:text=Former%20U.S.%20National%20Counterterrorism%20Center,do%20not%20support%20this%20war.) in Washington, alongside podcaster Candace Owens. A major message from Kent’s early statements and appearances involved the idea that Donald Trump was being pressured into war with Iran by Israel. He said Trump “started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,” and in the interview with Tucker (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cbw1utqzHg), intimated that security failures may have led Trump to feel he had “no choice” in his war decisions: He sees what happened in Butler with the other assassination attempts, when he sees what happened with Charlie, I think it’s reasonable to believe that somewhere in his head he thinks that like maybe I don’t have a choice. Maybe they could harm me or they could harm my family. Subscribe now In some interviews Kent has said that he’s only working off the information everybody else gets reading the news, in other interviews the wording is more vague. On the day of an apparent cease-fire with Iran — when Trump went from promising a “whole civilization will die tonight” to saying “We’ll be loading up with supplies of all kinds, and just ‘hangin’ around’ in order to make sure that everything goes well” — we hoped to clarify how he arrived at certain conclusions, what he thinks of the latest developments, and how (if at all) his thinking has changed. Racket readers will see that I lost my hotel Internet connection just as the interview started, but Michael gamely completed the discussion. Here’s the video, along with a transcript, of our talk with Joe Kent:

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