Ex-Trump Official Tells Tucker Carlson Why He Quit Over Iran War

Iran has not gotten anywhere close to developing nuclear weapons over the last year, according to ex-counterterrorism director Joe Kent.

Kent blindsided the Trump administration earlier this week when he suddenly resigned from his post as the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, citing the war with Iran—and his assessment that Iran “posed no imminent threat” to the U.S.—as the primary cause for his departure.

In a sit-down interview Wednesday night with Tucker Carlson, Kent explained that Iran’s nuclear program was basically defunct.

“Was Iran on the verge of getting a nuclear weapon?” asked Carlson.

“No, they weren’t three weeks ago when this started, and they weren’t in June either,” Kent said. “I mean, the Iranians have had a religious ruling—a fatwa—against actually developing a nuclear weapon since 2004. That’s been in place since 2004. That’s available in the public sphere.

“But then also, we had no intelligence to indicate that that fatwa was being disobeyed or it was on the cusp of being lifted,” he noted.

Kent’s resignation sparked a maelstrom across Washington, where top Republicans and Trump officials spent the better part of Tuesday disparaging Kent and his work, branding the Trump appointee as a “crazed egomaniac.” The size and scope of the MAGA reaction was a message to other Trump officials, warning them of the fallout if they publicly criticize the war.

The repercussions continued into Thursday, when Representative Elise Stefanik referred to Kent’s letter as “inappropriate,” and National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard told Congress that Kent’s decision to blame Israel for the ongoing war was concerning.

In the same interview with Carlson, Kent claimed that U.S. officials had entered a “complacent mode” when dealing with Israel and its shared intelligence, warning that that intelligence could be shared to influence the U.S. administration just as much as it is shared to inform the administration.

“We trust a lot of what they have to say, not keeping in the back of our mind that they have their own agenda and we have our own agenda at the end of the day,” Kent said, noting that the U.S. and Israel’s missions are frequently aligned, though he did not believe this was the case with regard to the Iran.

“I don’t believe our objective has been clearly defined,” Kent said, citing America’s and Israel’s varied approaches to forced regime change in Iran.

Kent also offered some conspiratorial views on Charlie Kirk’s assassination, suggesting that Israel could have been involved in the political operative’s death since Kirk was a vocal opponent against U.S. involvement in Iran.

It’s worth noting that Kent is a known extremist with neo-Nazi ties. He has had to disavow a past interview with Nazi sympathizer Greyson Arnold and interactions with Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes. Even his resignation letter included “ugly antisemitic tropes” and “really nasty rhetoric,” Emily Horne, a former National Security Council official under Joe Biden, told The New Republic earlier this week.

So far, 13 U.S. soldiers have been killed in the conflict, as have more than 20 Iranian officials, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. More than 1,400 Iranian civilians have been killed, including dozens of children at a girls’ school in the country’s south. Some 3.2 million people have been displaced, as the U.S.-Israeli strikes have damaged more than 42,000 civilian sites—such as homes, hospitals, and schools—across Iran, according to Iranian government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani.

The Trump administration is requesting more than $200 billion to fund the war with Iran, and Democrats are outraged.

The Washington Post reported Wednesday night that the Department of Defense had asked the White House for the hefty sum. Reactions were swift and negative. On X, Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego pointed out the Iraq War of the early 2000s was less expensive.

“At the height of combat the Iraq War cost around $140 Billion per year,” Gallego posted. “If the Pentagon is asking for $200 billion they are asking for a long war. The answer is a simple no.”

Senator Chris Van Hollen was more blunt.

“This should be an absolute nonstarter,” Van Hollen wrote. “The best way to end this war, protect our troops, save civilian lives, and rein in a lawless administration is to cut off funding. I’m a hell no.”

The request would come on top of President Trump’s request to Congress in January, before the war, to boost the defense budget from $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion, a record high.* And the first six days of the Iran war cost taxpayers more than $11.3 billion. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth defended the additional $200 billion to reporters Thursday, saying that it “takes money to kill bad guys.”

“So we’re going back to Congress and our folks there to ensure that we’re properly funded for what’s been done, for what we may have to do in the future, ensure that our ammunition—everything’s refilled, and not just refilled, but above and beyond,” Hegseth said.

This budget request is not going to sail through Congress, especially if the administration deploys ground troops. Since most Democrats in the Senate oppose the additional funding, Republicans would have to use the budget reconciliation process to pass it. We’ll see if any vulnerable Republicans balk.

* This story has been updated with the correct defense budget request.

Multiple House Democrats walked out of a closed-door briefing Wednesday with Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, calling it a “fake hearing” and accusing her of a “cover-up.”

The briefing was regarding Bondi’s and the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein files, and comes just days after Bondi was subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee to testify over her “possible mismanagement.”

“It’s outrageous, it’s infuriating and it continues this White House cover-up of the Epstein files,” Democratic Representative Robert Garcia said. “We’re not going to take that anymore.”

Democrats noted that Bondi was not under oath, gave no opening statement, and did not commit to honoring her subpoena. Representative Yassamin Ansari called it “insane bullshit” and said she’d “fucking had it.”

House Oversight Chair James Comer called the Democratic response a “premeditated” stunt. And one exchange between Representative Summer Lee and Comer became particularly tense, according to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.

Here’s what happened with Rep. Summer Lee and Chairman James Comer behind closed doors during the briefing with Pam Bondi and Todd Blanche, I’m told:

Lee: “Mr. Chairman, there are no cameras here. You don’t have to perform. We were told this was a briefing.”

Comer: “It’s a briefing!”

Lee: “But she hasn’t offered any information.... This is a hearing. This is a hearing without the cameras. This is a hearing without C-SPAN. And it’s a hearing without the public. So, what I’m asking is ...”

Comer: “You want me to scoot some chairs around and make a circle. Would that make it feel more like a briefing?”

Lee: “I would like C-SPAN. I would like you to bring the transcribers. I would like you to go through with the decorum and with the rules ...”

Comer: “Are you trying to find information, or trying to embarrass the attorney general?”

Lee: “Absolutely not. I think the attorney general is a woman who is completely able to defend herself, and I’m not attacking her. I’m questioning you. You run this place. What I’m asking you is ... will you commit to going as far as ...”

Comer: “I’ve already issued the subpoena ...”

Lee: “And this is not the deposition ...”

Comer: “You’ve wasted three minutes of everyone’s time just kind of, bitching ...”

Lee: “Really? Wow! Bitching?”

Comer later responded on X.

“FACT CHECK: True. I said Democrats were bitching and wasting everyone’s time because Democrats were bitching and wasting everyone’s time,” he wrote.

“Fact check: You said a woman was “bitching” because you’re too basic to answer simple questions without throwing a temper tantrum,” Lee responded. “And you’re too weak to keep Bondi from disrespecting YOU and your subpeona. Twice a failure.”

Americans everywhere want Bondi and the people in power to go under oath, on camera, and answer a few questions as to why there are so many delays and discrepancies within the files in what is supposed to be the most “transparent” administration ever.

Donald Trump disavowed Israel’s air strikes against Iran’s South Pars gas field, claiming that the U.S. “knew nothing” about the attack.

The president tried to wash his hands of Israel’s late-night assault, which marked a major escalation in the Iran war. Moments later, however, Trump promised that he, too, would “massively blow up” Iran’s gas field if Tehran did not stop attacking Qatar.

“Israel, out of anger for what has taken place in the Middle East, has violently lashed out at a major facility known as South Pars Gas Field in Iran,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social late Wednesday. “A relatively small section of the whole has been hit. The United States knew nothing about this particular attack, and the country of Qatar was in no way, shape, or form, involved with it, nor did it have any idea that it was going to happen.”

Trump further claimed that Iran was not aware that Israel was behind the attack, and instead retaliated against Qatar’s energy infrastructure.

The South Pars gas field is one of the largest natural gas reserves in the world. It is located offshore in the Persian Gulf and is shared between Iran and Qatar. The field contains an estimated 1,800 trillion cubic feet of usable gas and supplies countries all over the world. For context, the enormous reserve is estimated to contain enough gas to meet global demand for 13 years.

Israel’s ambush will only serve to add more pressure on the global gas supply. Energy prices soared last week after Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway through the Middle East that funnels approximately one-fifth of all crude oil shipments. The price of Brent crude, a global oil benchmark, surged from a pre-attack low of $106 per barrel to as much as $118 per barrel by Thursday morning.

U.S. diplomats don’t see how Trump could have been left in the dark on Israel’s sudden bombardment. Dan Shapiro, the former U.S. ambassador to Israel posted on X late Wednesday that there was “zero, I mean zero, chance” that Israel would have struck the energy target without giving U.S. Central Command “full visibility.”

Later that evening, reports emerged that both Israeli and American officials had confirmed that the U.S. knew in advance about the attack, but that Trump changed his tune once Iran struck Qatar, according to Axios.

“NO MORE ATTACKS WILL BE MADE BY ISRAEL pertaining to this extremely important and valuable South Pars Field unless Iran unwisely decides to attack a very innocent, in this case, Qatar—In which instance the United States of America, with or without the help or consent of Israel, will massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field at an amount of strength and power that Iran has never seen or witnessed before,” Trump continued in his post. “I do not want to authorize this level of violence and destruction because of the long term implications that it will have on the future of Iran, but if Qatar’s LNG is again attacked, I will not hesitate to do so.”

Trump told reporters Tuesday that he would withdraw from the war “in the very near future,” but that he wasn’t ready to leave yet. Leaving may not be a feasible option anytime soon, however. The president’s allies noticed a shift in regional power earlier this week, warning that while the early days of the war may have indicated an immediate victory, prolonged U.S. involvement in the conflict has dramatically increased the likelihood of boots on the ground. The changing tide has fueled concern that Trump could draw the country into yet another open-ended Middle East conflict.

Israel’s latest attack has left key Trump officials at a loss for words. At a press conference early Thursday morning, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth couldn’t seem to muster up an explanation for why the U.S. was continuing to fight this unpopular war alongside such a volatile ally.

“Why are we helping Israel prosecute this war if they are pursuing their own objectives?” asked a reporter from the far-right outlet The Gateway Pundit.

“We hold the cards, we have objectives, those objectives are clear,” Hegseth said. “We have allies pursuing objectives as well. The truth speaks for itself.… POTUS has made it clear, very clear.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth whined Thursday that the world should be grateful for President Donald Trump’s disastrous war in Iran.

Speaking during a press briefing, Hegseth turned his cultish rantings on, well, everybody.

“The world, the Middle East, our ungrateful allies in Europe, even segments of our own press should be saying one thing to President Trump: thank you,” Hegseth said. “Thank you for the courage to stop this terror state from holding the world hostage with missiles while building or attempting to build a nuclear bomb. Thank you for doing the work of the free world.”

The actual content of Hegseth’s request for gratitude was almost as preposterous as the plea itself.

Trump’s war hasn’t prevented Iran from “holding the world hostage with missiles”—in fact, his actions have invited retaliatory attacks on vessels in the Strait of Hormuz that have brought global trade to a screeching halt, and sent energy prices skyrocketing. Should Americans be thanking Trump for sending gas prices close to $4 a gallon, with no hope of bringing them down anytime soon?

Trump’s war hasn’t stopped Iran from building or attempting to build a nuclear bomb. The U.S. intelligence community’s annual global threat assessment found that Iran’s nuclear enrichment program was already “obliterated” and that “there were no efforts since then to try and rebuild their enrichment capability.” Should Americans be thanking Trump for launching an increasingly expensive military campaign against a threat that was not actually imminent?

Hegseth’s childish antagonism of U.S. allies simply underlines how desperate things have become. Those “ungrateful allies” in Europe are the very same ones that Trump is begging to help him clean up his mess in the Strait of Hormuz. And allies in the Middle East are the same ones being targeted by Iran, as Israel strikes energy infrastructure on which Gulf nations rely, with Trump unable to rein them in. Should our allies get on their knees and kiss Trump’s feet for the chaos he’s sown, or his reckless, feckless approach to starting massive global conflict?

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell once again confirmed the obvious—that President Trump’s impulsive tariffs and his war on Iran are responsible for skyrocketing prices.

“If you look at total core inflation, it’s about 3 percent. And some big chunk of that, between a half and three quarters, is actually tariffs,” Powell said at a Wednesday press conference.

Powell also cast blame upon Trump’s war on Iran, which has caused oil and gas prices to rise to their highest national levels in years.

“Near-term measures of inflation expectations have risen in recent weeks, likely reflecting the substantial rise in oil prices caused by the supply disruptions in the Middle East,” he said earlier in the conference.

Powell blamed these policies while announcing the Federal Reserve would leave interest rates unchanged. “The forecast is that we will be making progress on inflation; not as much as we had hoped, but some progress on inflation,” he said.

The Trump campaign can’t blame growing inflation on former President Biden forever, and the issue will persist long after Powell leaves. It’s clear that their president’s policies are responsible for the frustrated cries of millions of Americans who were already struggling financially. Powell’s admission only further cements Trump’s apathy towards the affordability issues.

Democratic Representative Dan Goldman revealed an unredacted document from the Epstein files on the House floor Wednesday, saying that it directly contradicts Donald Trump’s account of his relationship with the billionaire sex offender.

The document is an October 2009 email containing information about a conversation between one of Epstein’s attorneys, Jack Goldberger, and an attorney for Trump, Alan Garten. The email was initially released to the public in redacted form. In the unredacted version, as Goldman highlighted, Goldberger wrote that Garten said Epstein was never asked to leave Trump’s Mar-a-Lago country club in Florida as he was not a member, but may have been a guest.

This directly contradicts Trump’s claim that he kicked Epstein out of the resort in 2004 due to his poaching of Mar-a-Lago employees. Goldman claimed that the document was being deliberately withheld by the Department of Justice, violating the Epstein Files Transparency Act that Trump signed into law in November.

“This document here was redacted to the public. It was unredacted to Congress and it completely disputes everything that Donald Trump has said about Jeffrey Epstein,” Goldman said, displaying a blown-up poster of the email. “Now, why is this important? Because if the attorney general is covering up this information that she then reveals to Congress, what else is she covering up about Donald Trump’s involvement in the Epstein files?”

Bondi is already under fire for allegedly mismanaging the release of the Epstein files, and has been subpoenaed by the Republican-led House Oversight Committee to appear for a deposition April 14. This latest revelation is only going to make her seem more guilty of slow-walking and covering up damning information about Trump and Epstein.

Vice President JD Vance admitted there’s a “rough road ahead” with regard to skyrocketing gas prices caused by the war on Iran, which still has no clear end in sight.

“We’re seeing gas prices here climbing at home, in particular here in metro Detroit with what’s going on in Iran and the impacts on the Strait of Hormuz,” a reporter asked Vance at a Wednesday press conference in Michigan. “What is the administration doing to help keep gas prices down, and where do you see gas prices going in the near future?”

“Well, the president of the United States has been crystal clear about this. Look, gas prices are up. And we know they’re up. And we know that people are hurting because of it. And we’re doing everything we can to make sure they stay lower,” Vance replied. “The president said this and I certainly agree with it. This is a temporary blip, OK?”

Vance then went on to blame former President Joe Biden rather than elaborate on how exactly the Trump administration would be bringing gas prices down.

“Frankly [gas prices] aren’t even as high as they were during certain parts of the Biden administration because of what’s going on in the Middle East. It’s not gonna last forever. We’re gonna take care of business, we’re gonna come back home. And when that happens you’re gonna see energy prices come back down.... But yeah, we’ve got a rough road ahead of us for the next few weeks, but it’s temporary.”

This comes just one day after Ken Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council, proudly declared that the Iran war’s negative impact on the average U.S. consumer is “the last” of the administration’s concerns.

The Trump administration is spiraling over a New York Times story that says it is pushing Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel to step down as a requirement for negotiations between the U.S. and Cuba to move forward.

The Times reported Monday, citing four anonymous sources, that U.S. negotiators want economic hard-liner Díaz-Canel to go in order to open up the country’s economy. The report has infuriated Trump administration officials, who are disputing the reporting.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is personally handling Cuba, said Tuesday night on X, “The reason so many in US media keep putting out fake stories like this one is because they continue to rely on charlatans & liars claiming to be in the know as their sources.”

Charlie Stadtlander, a spokesperson for the newspaper, responded to Rubio Wednesday morning, saying that the Times reached out to the State Department “well before publication and received no disagreement with the information we were bringing to light.”

“Neither you nor anyone else has presented a factual dispute to the reporting,” Stadtlander stated. “Our reporting is real, and accurate.”

Hours later, White House communications director Steven Cheung jumped in and insulted the Times on X, saying, “The only people who are privy to Cuba are President Trump and Marco Rubio. Your lazy reporters relied on uninformed sources who know nothing about what’s going on.”

What Rubio and Cheung are mad about is unclear. Trump told reporters last month that he thinks that there could be a “friendly takeover” of Cuba, and, unprompted, told CNN just a week later that “Cuba is going to fall pretty soon.” Maybe Rubio and Cheung, amid the administration’s various regime change plots, are mad that the Times got inside information that they didn’t want revealed to the public.

The leader of the FBI admitted Wednesday to unconstitutionally buying location data monitoring the general public.

The confession emerged during a heated exchange with Democrat Senator Ron Wyden, who asked FBI Director Kash Patel if he would pledge to refrain from such purchases.

“Can you commit this morning to not buying Americans’ location data?” asked Wyden.

“The FBI uses all tools … to do our mission,” Patel said. “We do purchase commercially available information that’s consistent with the Constitution and the laws under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. It’s led to some valuable intelligence for us to be utilized with our private and partner sectors.”

“So you’re saying that the agency will buy Americans’ location data?” Wyden said. “I believe that’s what you’ve said in some kind of intelligence lingo.”

“Doing that without a warrant is an outrageous end run around of the Fourth Amendment. It’s particularly dangerous given the use of artificial intelligence to comb through massive amounts of private information,” the Oregon lawmaker noted.

The Fourth Amendment protects people in America from unlawful search and seizures by the government, mandating that law enforcement officials obtain search warrants, which require a legal standard of probable cause. That standard remains true for any attempted information collection by government agencies, which typically have to convince a judge to authorize a search warrant before they can access such details from tech or phone companies.

Patel’s tacit approval of his administration’s intrusions into the personal details of everyday Americans illustrates that the agency not only failed to meet that standard—but also that the current leader appears to not understand the gravity of the violation.

Wyden was one of four lawmakers who last week introduced the bipartisan Government Surveillance Reform Act, which among other things would explicitly require surveillance agencies to seek judicial warrants from data brokers. It would also prohibit “warrantless backdoor searches,” would prohibit the targeting of foreigners as “a pretext for spying on the Americans with whom they are communicating,” and “prohibits the collection of domestic communications.”

In a statement, Representative Warren Davidson noted that Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act had been “stretched far beyond its original purpose” to the point that it effectively permits “unconstitutional warrantless searches of American citizens and their private communications.”

“The bipartisan Government Surveillance Reform Act counters these abuses by requiring a warrant to search Americans’ data and by closing the data broker loophole that allows the federal government to spy on citizens by purchasing private data that would otherwise require a warrant or subpoena,” the Ohio Republican wrote.