US President Donald Trump reacted to the resignation of anti-terror body chief Joe Kent on Tuesday over Iran war and called it a “good thing”. He called Kent “very weak on security” for his assessment that Iran was posing “no imminent threat” on the United States.
Trump said that he always thought of Kent as a “nice guy” but “always thought he was weak on security”.
“When I read his statement, I realized that it's a good thing that he's out because he said that Iran was not a threat,” Trump said.
Also read: US anti-terror body chief Joe Kent resigns over war with Iran, asks Trump to 'reflect'
“Every country realises what a threat Iran was, the question is whether or not they wanted to do something about it,” he added.
‘Iranian regime is evil’
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed that in Joe Kent's resignation letter, there were many “false claims”, particularly that "Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation."
{{/usCountry}}White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed that in Joe Kent's resignation letter, there were many “false claims”, particularly that "Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation."
{{/usCountry}}She said that Trump had evidence that Iran was going to attack the United States first.
“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,” Leavitt said in a lengthy post on X quoting Kent's resignation post.
Stressing that Trump would not make the decision to deploy military assets against a foreign adversary “in a vacuum” and that 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,” she claimed.
Also read: Diplomacy, dark mode: How India-bound ships made safe passage via Strait of Hormuz
‘Only Commander-in-Chief determines what constitutes a threat’
Leavitt also went on to say that it was only the United States' Commander-in-Chief has the prerogative to determine 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,” she added.