Joe Kent

Kent proposes lifting some oil sanctions on Iran as a carrot to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and lower fuel prices.

“I think lifting the sanctions and letting them get a lot of their oil introduced back into the world market I think that's actually a pretty good carrot to get them to the table”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #291 Joe Kent - His Message to President Trump on Ending the War With Iran (Mar 26, 2026) · Listen from 1:18:18

Kent recommends conditioning Israel's defensive support on U.S. approval of its operations to force it off the offensive.

“we are going to start taking away features of your defense system to the point where all you can do with your military basically is stay on the defense”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #291 Joe Kent - His Message to President Trump on Ending the War With Iran (Mar 26, 2026) · Listen from 1:16:38

Kent says Trump should take advice from the vice president and the Director of National Intelligence rather than Graham, Cruz and Mark Levin.

“he has been taking more advice, obviously, from Lindsey Graham, from Ted Cruz, from Mark Levin on TV”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #291 Joe Kent - His Message to President Trump on Ending the War With Iran (Mar 26, 2026) · Listen from 36:55

Kent warns that putting U.S. troops on Kharg Island would hand Iran a strategic victory and leave troops as sitting ducks.

“there's ballistics, there's drones. They would be sitting ducks in that area”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #291 Joe Kent - His Message to President Trump on Ending the War With Iran (Mar 26, 2026) · Listen from 34:48

Kent says the United States has no real strategic goal beyond a list of targets, while Israel's goal of toppling the regime is clear.

“we just list off the tactical punch list of things we want to bomb to take out so the Iranians don't have any more. And to me, that's not a real strategic goal”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #291 Joe Kent - His Message to President Trump on Ending the War With Iran (Mar 26, 2026) · Listen from 32:54

Kent says he supported killing Qasem Soleimani but has always opposed a regime change war inside Iran.

“I will debate anybody on the utility of killing Qasem Soleimani. President Trump was justified, and he was correct, and he was bold for killing Qasem Soleimani”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #291 Joe Kent - His Message to President Trump on Ending the War With Iran (Mar 26, 2026) · Listen from 22:42

Kent says he has no plans to run for Congress in the midterms or for president in 2028.

“I have no plans to run for president in 2028. Running for Congress is challenging enough”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #291 Joe Kent - His Message to President Trump on Ending the War With Iran (Mar 26, 2026) · Listen from 1:41:44

Kent says the MAGA coalition is already fractured by the administration's actions and that he is trying to preserve rather than break it.

“I'm not fracturing the coalition the coalition is very fractured because of our actions”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #291 Joe Kent - His Message to President Trump on Ending the War With Iran (Mar 26, 2026) · Listen from 1:37:34

Kent predicts the war's effect on gas prices and cost of living will drive voters against the party in power in the midterms.

“they're gonna be like, oh, the party that's in power right now screwed this up. I'm gonna vote for the other guy”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #291 Joe Kent - His Message to President Trump on Ending the War With Iran (Mar 26, 2026) · Listen from 1:32:33

Kent recommends consolidating terrorism screening and vetting into a single clearinghouse at NCTC.

“I think there basically needs to be one central clearinghouse for screening and vetting to decide if someone has ties to a terrorist organization or not”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #291 Joe Kent - His Message to President Trump on Ending the War With Iran (Mar 26, 2026) · Listen from 1:54:02

Kent denies leaking classified information and says no one has informed him of an actual investigation.

“I didn't leak any classified information. I had my full security clearance until last week when I walked out the door”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #291 Joe Kent - His Message to President Trump on Ending the War With Iran (Mar 26, 2026) · Listen from 1:04:10

Kent says he resigned because he concluded he could no longer be effective and could not be part of the war once casualties began returning.

“I couldn't be a part of it once the coffin started coming back from Dover, from overseas to Dover”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #291 Joe Kent - His Message to President Trump on Ending the War With Iran (Mar 26, 2026) · Listen from 2:03

Kent argues inspired lone actors, not trained sleeper cells, are the main domestic terrorism threat.

“I think the main threat is people that have come here legally and illegally being inspired by media they consume”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #291 Joe Kent - His Message to President Trump on Ending the War With Iran (Mar 26, 2026) · Listen from 58:26

Kent testified that NCTC identified 18,000 known or suspected terrorists with access to the United States and says the deeper takeaway is that the government does not know who is in the country.

“I testified publicly in December that we at NCTC had identified 18,000 known suspected terrorists who had access to America”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #291 Joe Kent - His Message to President Trump on Ending the War With Iran (Mar 26, 2026) · Listen from 58:29

Kent argues a draft or compulsory service would spread the burden of war and make prolonged conflicts politically impossible.

“if you spread out that burden to the entire country, it makes it almost impossible to keep us at war for a prolonged period”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #291 Joe Kent - His Message to President Trump on Ending the War With Iran (Mar 26, 2026) · Listen from 1:57:18

Kent says foreign connections in the Kirk assassination were not thoroughly investigated, without alleging a foreign government's involvement.

“The only thing I know for sure is that our due diligence was not done on looking at the foreign links”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #291 Joe Kent - His Message to President Trump on Ending the War With Iran (Mar 26, 2026) · Listen from 1:10:54

Kent says NCTC was blocked from examining possible links between the Asif Merchant plot and the Butler shooting.

“I wanted to look for potential linkage between those events, was completely shut off and blocked from that”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #291 Joe Kent - His Message to President Trump on Ending the War With Iran (Mar 26, 2026) · Listen from 1:07:10

Kent says U.S. support for the Syrian opposition worked with al-Qaeda elements and produced ISIS, the conflict in which his wife was killed.

“the most effective guys initially were Al-Qaeda and then eventually ISIS. Now, obviously, ISIS got out of control”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #291 Joe Kent - His Message to President Trump on Ending the War With Iran (Mar 26, 2026) · Listen from 51:43

Kent says Netanyahu lobbied and testified to Congress that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, helping launder the case for the Iraq War.

“He came and he aggressively lobbied and testified in the House and in the Senate that Saddam was developing weapons of mass destruction”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #291 Joe Kent - His Message to President Trump on Ending the War With Iran (Mar 26, 2026) · Listen from 50:52

Kent argues the war threatens the petrodollar because Gulf states' security guarantees have proven worthless and Iran can force transactions into other currencies.

“So how long do we expect them to continue to settle their transactions in the dollar? So the ramifications of this conflict, I think, are massive”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #291 Joe Kent - His Message to President Trump on Ending the War With Iran (Mar 26, 2026) · Listen from 43:13

Kent argues attacking Iran strengthens the IRGC and hardliners through a rally-around-the-flag effect rather than producing moderates.

“they're not gonna be replaced by like a mini Thomas Jefferson. They're gonna be replaced by more and more hardliners”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #291 Joe Kent - His Message to President Trump on Ending the War With Iran (Mar 26, 2026) · Listen from 25:05

Kent argues Israel repeatedly sets off actions that force the United States to contribute blood and treasure.

“The Israelis will have their objectives. They will convince senior American officials that this is also their objectives. And if the Americans don't agree, then the Israelis will set off a series of actions that make us react”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #291 Joe Kent - His Message to President Trump on Ending the War With Iran (Mar 26, 2026) · Listen from 6:15