President Donald Trump’s former top counterterrorism official who resigned over the war in Iran said his suspicion piqued when the FBI blocked his investigation into Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
Joe Kent, the former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, went onto Tucker Carlson’s podcast to explain how he lost confidence in Trump, who he believes was duped into the war by Israel.
His resignation comes at a perilous moment for the Trump administration, with the President himself breaking with Israel over strikes on an Iranian gas field that set the Gulf ablaze, sparking retaliatory strikes on America’s Arab allies on Wednesday.
Kent told the former Fox News host that Kirk’s last words to him were: ‘Joe, stop us from getting into a war with Iran.’
Text messages from Kirk suggest he had turned against Israel in the months before his death, fueling conspiracy theories that his assassination was not at the hands of a lone wolf gunman.
Kent suggested that there were foreign entities and potentially other domestic powers that were somehow involved in Kirk’s death, but did not provide any evidence or explicitly blame Israel.
Kent did say that Kirk ‘was under a lot of pressure from a lot of pro-Israel donors.’
A law enforcement source familiar with the FBI’s investigation into the assassination told the Daily Mail that Kent would often walk into meetings and make unsupported, outlandish claims that it was foreign actors who killed Kirk.
‘During the early stages of the Charlie Kirk investigation he would walk in meetings, without any information or evidence, and speculate that Iran had killed Charlie – as a senior NCTC official. And when asked for evidence he had none,’ the source detailed.
Former National Counterterrorism Center Director suggested that foreign entities and the ‘pro-Israel’ lobby was somehow involved in Charlie Kirk’s assassination
Kent said Kirk’s last words to him were: ‘Joe, stop us from getting into a war with Iran.’ Pictured Charlie and Erika Kirk pose together in front of the Presidential Seal from an Instagram post made by Erika in January 2025
Kent questioned the lone gunman narrative that 22-year-old Tyler Robinson was the sole person responsible for assassinating Kirk
An FBI spokesperson declined to comment on Kent’s claims. And the White House did not respond to the Daily Mail’s request for comment on the former NCTC chief’s interview.
Kent called into question the conclusion that Kirk was killed by 22-year-old gunman Tyler Robinson at Utah Valley University on September 10.
‘Charlie Kirk was killed publicly in a very horrific way and we’re not really even allowed to look into that at all,’ Kent lamented to Carlson in an interview the day after his resignation.
‘We’ve been told that this individual – Robinson – is a lone gunman, and maybe he is,’ he admitted, before adding, ‘But the investigation that I was a part of – the National Terrorism Center was a part of – we were stopped from continuing to investigate.’
He said that the FBI prevented the NCTC, which falls under the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, from continuing its probe because they wanted to turn everything over to authorities in Utah.
‘But there was still a lot for us to look into that I can’t really get into,’ Kent told Carlson. ‘There was still linkage for us to investigate, that we needed to run down.’
‘I’m not making any conclusions… There’s unanswered questions,’ he said.
Kent said in a post to X on Tuesday that he could not ‘in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran’ through his role under Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
‘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,’ he wrote in his resignation letter.
Kent sat for an interview on Tucker Carlson’s podcast the day after he publicly resigned as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, claiming he could not ‘in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran’
Kent said in his podcast with Carlson that Kirk, the conservative luminary who helmed Turning Point USA, was one of ‘Trump’s closest advisers.’
‘He also advocated heavily against a war with Iran. He was in the Oval Office in the lead-up to the 12-day war,’ Kent noted of the conflict in Iran back in June 2025.
‘The last time I saw Charlie Kirk on this earth was in June in the West Wing in the stairway. And I said hi to him and he looked me in the eye and said very loudly… ‘Joe, stop us from getting into a war with Iran,’ Kent said.
He added: ‘Charlie was under a lot of pressure from a lot of pro-Israel donors. And, again, we know Charlie was advocating to President Trump against this war with Iran.’
