# 3/19/26 Joe Kent on How the Israelis Drove Trump Towards an Unnecessary War with Iran Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/scott-horton-show-just-the-interviews-970238/3-19-26-joe-kent-on-how-the-israelis-drove-trump-towards-an-unnecessary-war-with-iran Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/scott-horton-show-just-the-interviews-970238/3-19-26-joe-kent-on-how-the-israelis-drove-trump-towards-an-unnecessary-war-with-iran.md Podcast: [Scott Horton Show - Just the Interviews](https://stenobird.com/podcast/scott-horton-show-just-the-interviews-970238) Published: 2026-03-19T23:22:00+00:00 Episode link: https://scotthorton.org/interviews/3-19-26-joe-kent-on-how-israel-drove-trump-towards-an-unnecessary-war-with-iran/ Audio file: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/SCHM4209189386.mp3?updated=1773962942 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/scott-horton-show-just-the-interviews-970238/episodes/3-19-26-joe-kent-on-how-the-israelis-drove-trump-towards-an-unnecessary-war-with-iran Duration seconds: 3124 ## Resource Scott interviews Joe Kent, the former director of the US National Counterterrorism Center, about what drove him to resign. Kent explains how he saw the Israelis mislead Trump about an Iranian nuclear threat and the supposed fragility of the regime. He also backs up some of the widely attacked claims in his resignation letter about Israeli involvement in getting the US into previous wars in the region, reflects on what the real goals of the Israeli government are with this war, sheds light on Scott’s concerns about significant blowback terrorism in the US and more. Discussed on the show: Kent’s letter of resignation Joe Kent is a retired Army Special Forces soldier who served as the director of the National Counterterrorism Center in Trump’s second term until he resigned in 2026 over the war with Iran. Follow him on Twitter @joekent16jan19 Audio cleaned up with the Podsworth app: https://podsworth.com Use code HORTON50 for 50% off your first order at Podsworth.com to clean up your voice recordings, sound like a pro, and also support the Scott Horton Show! For more on Scott's work: Check out The Libertarian Institute: https://www.libertarianinstitute.org Check out Scott's other show, Provoked, with Darryl Cooper https://youtube.com/@Provoked_Show Read Scott's books: Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine https://amzn.to/47jMtg7 (The audiobook of Provoked is being published in sections at https://scotthortonshow.com) Enough Already: Time to End the War on Terrorism: https://amzn.to/3tgMCdw Fool’s Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan https://amzn.to/3HRufs0 Follow Scott on X @scotthortonshow And check out Scott’s full interview archives: https://scotthorton.org/all-interviews This episode of the Scott Horton Show… ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/scott-horton-show-just-the-interviews-970238/episodes/3-19-26-joe-kent-on-how-the-israelis-drove-trump-towards-an-unnecessary-war-with-iran/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/scott-horton-show-just-the-interviews-970238/3-19-26-joe-kent-on-how-the-israelis-drove-trump-towards-an-unnecessary-war-with-iran.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.