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White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt delivered a brutal smackdown to disgruntled ex-National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent’s resignation letter, exposing his claims as nothing but a string of dangerous lies and Democrat-style propaganda.
Kent, who had reportedly been sidelined as a “known leaker” and cut out of President Trump’s sensitive intelligence briefings months ago according to Fox News White House Correspondent Jacqui Heinrich, announced his resignation effective immediately in protest of the Operation Epic Fury against the Iranian terror regime.
The White House was having none of it.
Leavitt issued a fiery statement that directly torched Kent’s core assertion that “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation,” calling it the same false narrative pushed by Democrats and the liberal media.
Here is the full statement from Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt:
“There are many false claims in this letter but let me address one specifically: that “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation.”
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.
This evidence was compiled from many sources and factors. President Trump would never make the decision to deploy military assets against a foreign adversary in a vacuum.
Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.
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.
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.
The regime aimed to use those ballistic missiles as a shield to continue achieving their ultimate goal – nuclear weapons.
The President, through his top negotiators, gave the regime every single possible opportunity to abandon this unacceptable course by permanently giving up their nuclear ambitions in exchange for sanctions relief, free nuclear fuel, and potential economic partnerships with our country.
But they would not say yes to peace because obtaining nuclear weapons was their fundamental goal.
President Trump 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.
All of this led to President Trump arriving at the determination that this military operation was necessary for U.S. national security, which is why he launched the massively successful Operation Epic Fury.
The Commander-in-Chief determines what does and does not constitute a threat, because he is the one constitutionally empowered to do so – and because the American people went to the ballot box and entrusted him and him alone to make such final judgments.
And finally, the absurd allegation that President Trump made this decision based on the influence of others, even foreign countries, is both insulting and laughable. President Trump has been remarkably consistent and has said for DECADES that Iran can NEVER possess a nuclear weapon.
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.”
There are many false claims in this letter but let me address one specifically: that “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation.”
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… https://t.co/AC8M5L8lye
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) March 17, 2026
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