Resistance to President Donald Trump is increasing as the Iran war enters its fourth week.Image: keystone
analysis
The US President’s foreign policy is sharply criticized by supporters. This also puts pressure on his deputy JD Vance, who would like to inherit him.
March 17, 2026, 7:20 p.mMarch 17, 2026, 7:20 p.m
For the first time since the start of the Iran war, a high-ranking member of President Donald Trump’s administration resigned in protest on Tuesday. Joe Kent said in his letter of resignation, which he published on the online platform X, that he could not support the military operation “in good conscience”. Iran poses no immediate threat to the United States, and “it is clear that we started this war because of pressure from Israel and its influential American lobby.”
After much reflection, I have decided to resign from my position as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, effective today.
I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this… pic.twitter.com/prtu86DpEr
— Joe Kent (@joekent16jan19) March 17, 2026
Before his appointment as director of the National Counterterrorism Center in the summer of 2025, the secret service agent Kent politicized on the right-wing fringe of the Republican Party – and repeatedly caused controversy. The military veteran is also considered a close ally of controversial figures such as commentator Tucker Carlson, who has polemicized against the Iran war with similar arguments over the past three weeks.
Both Kent and Carlson claim that senior Israeli government officials provided the American president with false information about Iran’s nuclear program. Israel also claimed that Trump could win the war quickly. “That was a lie,” Kent now writes.
Vice President Vance under pressure
Trump rejected this representation in an initial statement. Nevertheless, Kent’s statements highlight the president’s problems. After the initial successes of the American and Israeli armed forces, doubts about the mission of the two states are increasing. Figures like Carlson, who have great influence in Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement, criticize the war in increasingly shrill tones. The MAGA mouthpieces also resort to anti-Semitic conspiracy myths.
This polemic is increasing the pressure on senior figureheads of the isolationist wing of the Republicans. The best-known figure: Vice President JD Vance, who owes his rapid political rise primarily to criticism of the US’s “endless wars” in the Middle East.
The pressure is intensifying on JD Vance.Image: keystone
Internally, the 41-year-old is still considered a skeptic. Vance is worried about the success of the Iran war, Politico recently reported, and is striving for a quick end to the conflict. However, the Vice President, who was long considered Trump’s natural successor in the next presidential election in 2028, does not want to repeat this criticism publicly.
During a joint appearance with Trump in the Oval Office of the White House on Monday, Vance instead said: He wanted to make the military deployment of the American armed forces “as successful as possible.” He also supports the president’s goal of destroying Iran’s nuclear program.
“We don’t need help,” says Trump
But Trump seems to have long since achieved this goal. Nevertheless, the war in Iran continues, also because Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to kill the entire top leadership of the regime in Tehran. On Monday, the American president said again that the war could end as early as this week. However, when asked by a journalist, he specified that the fighting would probably last longer.
This is also due to the fact that the Strait of Hormuz is blocked – with massive consequences for global oil prices. Trump has failed in recent days to mobilize a coalition of allies who could use warships to guarantee the safe passage of oil tankers through the bottleneck. There was just a hail of cancellations in the European and Asian capitals.
On Tuesday, the president announced on the Truth Social online service that his country was not dependent on allies. “We don’t need help from anyone,” he wrote in capital letters. He just wanted to find out whether the US could count on the support of its allies in an emergency. “That was a test,” said Trump in the White House. He won’t forget that anytime soon. (aargauerzeitung.ch)