President Donald Trump recently took a sharp swipe at his former counterterrorism chief Joe Kent during a chat with reporters. He brought up Kent’s personal life in a pretty pointed way saying the guy remarried too soon after losing his first wife.
Trump who has been married three times himself did not hold back. He mentioned Kent’s late wife several times in just a few minutes calling out what he saw as a quick turnaround. “Look I’m not a fan of the guy” Trump said. He went on to recall how Kent’s wife was killed and how he had felt sorry for him at the time.
Trump talked about Kent running for Congress twice and losing both times before he decided to give him a job in the White House out of kindness.
“He seemed like a very nice guy” Trump added. “I met him. He was pretty heartbroken. But being a nice guy doesn’t pay off too much you know.” He kept circling back to the remarriage saying Kent had moved on fairly quickly after the tragedy and that this was the thanks he got for offering him a position.
The whole thing stems from Kent resigning last week from his role as director of the National Counterterrorism Center. He stepped down because he could not support Trump’s ongoing conflict with Iran. In his resignation letter Kent who is a veteran with eleven combat deployments described himself as a Gold Star husband. He wrote that he lost his beloved wife Shannon in a war he believes was manufactured by Israel and that he refuses to send more young Americans into fights that do not serve the country.
Shannon Kent a Navy intelligence officer was killed in a suicide bombing in Manbij Syria back in January 2019. She and Joe had been married since 2015 and they had two children together. She is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Joe Kent went on to remarry Heather Kaiser in August 2023 about four years after the loss.
Trump had appointed Kent to the counterterrorism post partly because he felt bad for him after the election losses and the death of his wife. Now with the resignation and Kent’s criticism of the Iran situation things have clearly soured.
It has all sparked plenty of conversation online with people reacting to the very personal nature of Trump’s remarks.