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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt pushed back Tuesday on “false claims” in the resignation letter of the nation’s top counterterrorism official, saying President Donald Trump had “strong and compelling evidence” that Iran was going to attack the United States first.
Joe Kent wrote on X earlier this morning that, “After much reflection, I have decided to resign from my position as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, effective today.” Kent said he could not in “good conscience” support the ongoing war with Iran, claiming that “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.”
“There are many false claims in this letter but let me address one specifically: that ‘Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation,” Leavitt responded. “This is the same false claim that Democrats and some in the liberal media have been repeating over and over.”
“As President Trump has clearly and explicitly stated, he had strong and compelling evidence that Iran was going to attack the United States first,” she added.
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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, left, and Joe Kent, director of the National Counterterrorism Center. Kent announced his resignation on Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (Annabelle Gordon/AFP via Getty Images; Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Leavitt said, “This evidence was compiled from many sources and factors,” and, “President Trump would never make the decision to deploy military assets against a foreign adversary in a vacuum.”
The press secretary said Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism – a sentiment that House lawmakers agreed with earlier this month when they passed a resolution containing the same language.
“The Iranian regime is evil. It proudly killed Americans, waged war against our country, and openly threatened us all the way up to the launch of Operation Epic Fury,” Leavitt continued.
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The U.S. Navy’s USS Gerald R. Ford conducts flight operations in support of Operation Epic Fury against Iran, from an unidentified location, in this image released on March 9, 2026. (DVIDS/Reuters)
“Iran was aggressively expanding their short-range ballistic missiles to combine with their naval assets to give themselves immunity – meaning they would have a degree of a capabilities that would give them immunity to hold us and the rest of the world hostage,” she added. “The regime aimed to use those ballistic missiles as a shield to continue achieving their ultimate goal – nuclear weapons.”
Leavitt said the president “ultimately made the determination that a joint attack with Israel would greatly reduce the risk to American lives that would come from a first strike by the terrorist Iranian regime and address this imminent threat to America’s national security interests.”
She also slammed the “absurd allegation that President Trump made this decision based on the influence of others, even foreign countries,” calling Kent’s claim “insulting and laughable.”
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, left, was killed at the beginning of Operation Epic Fury, which was launched by the Trump administration against Iran. (Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images; Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
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“President Trump has been remarkably consistent and has said for DECADES that Iran can NEVER possess a nuclear weapon,” Leavitt said. “As someone who actually witnesses President Trump’s decision-making process on a daily basis, I can attest to the fact that he is always looking to do what’s in the best interest of the United States of America — period. America First.”
