Joe Kent resigned from a counterterrorism job in President Donald Trump’s administration over the war with Iran and then appeared on Tucker Carlson’s podcast the next day, a sequence that reignited concerns among Jewish leaders and deepened fractures within the Republican Party.
In the interview, Kent said, “The Israelis drove the decision to take this action,” as he discussed reasons he stepped down. The conversation soon broadened beyond the Iran war into allegations and conspiracy-oriented questions, including Kent’s comments that there were “unanswered questions” related to conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
The episode highlighted two overlapping schisms taking shape in the Republican ecosystem, according to the reporting: a foreign-policy dispute over the wisdom of Trump’s approach toward Iran and the future of the U.S. alliance with Israel, and a parallel anxiety that Israel-focused talk is being used as a pathway for antisemitic tropes. Those fears have drawn comparisons to earlier historical portrayals, the article said, as some messaging depicts Jews as shadowy manipulators.
Carlson has been a central figure in that dynamic for conservatives, the story noted. Carlson previously drew backlash for hosting Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist and antisemite, on his podcast last year, when Fuentes complained about “organized Jewry in America.” On Wednesday, Carlson criticized Israel, saying “its lobbying in the United States pressured the president,” while the interview shifted into broader disagreements about influence and narratives around events.
Republican Jewish Coalition President Matt Brooks described Kent’s podcast appearance as part of “an ongoing problem.” Brooks also said his group had opposed Trump’s decision to ignore concerns raised about Kent’s nomination as director of the National Counterterrorism Center, citing ties to right-wing extremism, and Brooks pointed to Trump’s past comments after Kent’s resignation that he “always thought he was weak on security” and that he “didn’t know him well.”
The reporting said Kent’s resignation letter and interview remarks advanced claims that critics described as antisemitic conspiracy theory, even as Kent had previously rejected “all forms of ‘racism and bigotry.’” The resignation letter blamed “high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media” for encouraging conflict, and it also said Kent believed Israel employed what he described as “the same tactic the Israelis used to draw us into the disastrous Iraq war.” The letter further alleged Kent’s wife, a Navy cryptologist killed by a suicide bomber in Syria, died “in a war manufactured by Israel.”
Kent’s comments and the contents of his resignation letter triggered sharp responses from politicians. Sen. Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, described the letter as “virulent antisemitism.” Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a New Jersey Democrat, said, “scapegoating Israel isn’t just a tired antisemitic trope — it’s anti-American.” The story also said Trump did not comment on Kent’s remarks about Israel and previously disputed the idea that Israel pushed him toward war, saying, “I might have forced their hand.”
Beyond Kent and Carlson, the episode sits inside a larger dispute about Israel that has spread through American politics since the war in Gaza began with an Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas. The reporting said progressives have also faced accusations of antisemitism linked to their responses to Gaza, and that Republican conservatives are now reckoning with fallout from Carlson’s earlier interview with Fuentes.
Right-wing media figures have publicly criticized one another in the wake of Carlson’s lineup and the Iran-war controversy, the article said. Ben Shapiro, co-founder of The Daily Wire, called Carlson’s Fuentes interview “an act of moral imbecility” and accused Carlson of misleading his audience with falsehoods and conspiracy theories. The story also described longstanding feuds inside conservative media, including criticism aimed at Candace Owens for promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories, and an open letter from Dennis Prager to Owens that said, “I cannot think of anyone in public life engendering as much suspicion of Jews, Zionism and Israel as you.”
With the Iran war poised to continue reshaping the right-wing media landscape, the reporting described further friction over how Israel is discussed. Megyn Kelly, a former Fox News anchor now leading her own media platform, said the Iran war was sold to Americans by “Israel firsters, like Mark Levin.” Levin replied by calling Kelly an “emotionally unhinged, lewd and petulant wreck,” and he posted an invitation to Kent to appear on his show in the coming days; Kent responded, “Sure,” adding, “Let’s go.”
The story’s closing correction noted the name of the conservative Jewish group as the Zionist Organization of America, not Zionists for America.