Today in Politics, Bulletin 330. 3/17/26

… Tulsi Gabbard’s top deputy Joe Kent resigned to protest Trump’s Iran War. His resignation letter to Trump:

“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 war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.

I support the foreign policy values you campaigned on. Until June of 2025, you understood that the wars in the Middle East were a trap the robbed America of the precious lives of our patriots and depleted the wealth and prosperity of our nation.

Early in this admin, high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media deployed a misinformation campaign that wholly undermined your America First platform and sowed pro-war sentiments to encourage a war with Iran. This is the same tactic the Israelis used to draw us into the disastrous Iraq War.

As a veteran who deployed to combat 11 times and as a Gold Star husband who lost my beloved wife Shannon is a war manufactured by Israel, I cannot support sending the next generation to fight and die in a war that serves no benefit to the American people.”

… At the time of this publication, Joe Kent’s post on X had been up for 8 hours. It received 63 million views, 54,000 comments, and 601,000 likes.

… WaPo: “Joe Kent and Tulsi Gabbard met with JD Vance at the WH on Monday. During the meeting, Kent presented his resignation letter to the VP. The VP encouraged him to speak to Susie Wiles and Trump before making any final decisions. The VP encouraged him to be respectful to Trump.”

… “The interesting thing about the meeting is that it consisted of 3 senior Trump admin officials whose careers have been closely associated with foreign policy restraint - particularly related to Mideast wars viewed as peripheral to America's core national interests. But Vance continues to support the president's justification for the war.”

… “That view is coming under increasing strain within MAGA world where a growing cohort of conservatives view Trump's decision to bomb Iran - with all its attendant risks to energy supplies and a potential global recession - as a betrayal. Today, Joe Kent was the first high-profile official to put actual skin in the game and resign.”

… Trump was asked about it later: Q - “Your director of national counterterrorism, Joe Kent, he just resigned today. He said he can't support your conflict with Iran. Trump: I always thought he was a nice guy but I always thought he was weak on security. I didn't know him well.”

… He was just the coffee boy.

… Trump: “It’s good thing that he's out because he said that Iran was not a threat. When somebody is working with us that says they didn't think Iran was a threat - we don't want those people. They’re not smart people.”

… Tulsi Gabbard issued a statement making it clear that Trump made the decision to go to war, while never stating that she agreed with that decision: “Trump was overwhelmingly elected by the American people to be our President and Commander in Chief. He is responsible for determining what is and is not an imminent threat, and whether or not to take action he deems necessary to protect the safety and security of our troops, the American people and our country.”

… “The Office of the DNI is responsible for helping coordinate and integrate all intelligence to provide the President and Commander in Chief with the best information available to inform his decisions. After carefully reviewing all the information before him, President Trump concluded that the terrorist Islamist regime in Iran posed an imminent threat and he took action based on that conclusion.”

… Journalist Brad Polumbo: “It's not an exaggeration to say that Tulsi Gabbard made opposition to regime change wars and, specifically, advocating AGAINST a war with Iran, the single most defining aspect of her political career over the last decade. Whether you support the war or not, seeing someone so cravenly betray their values like this to cling to power is so disappointing.”

… Journalist Saagar Enjeti: “A craven masterclass that tightropes loyalty to Trump, doesn't indicate where she stands on the actual war, side steps whether any actual ‘imminent threat’ existed, and seeks to rebut Joe Kent without actually doing so.
Truly one for the history books.”

… Marge Greene: “Joe Kent is a GREAT AMERICAN HERO. God bless him and protect him!”

… Republican pollster Rich Baris: “Fucking integrity. Proud to call a brother. Yes, it’s a PR disaster for the WH. But so is this war, which was started by the Israel Lobby’s deceptions and selfishness. Joe Kent honored us with the truth today and did our country a great service.”

… Kent has agreed to sit down with Tucker Carlson for an interview that should be explosive inside the MAGA movement. It is sure to go viral on right-wing social media and podcasts and launch a new set of controversies and divisions in a movement that has already been feuding with each other non-stop for months on a variety of issues from Epstein to Charlie Kirk to the Iran War.

… Mike Johnson: "We all understood there was clearly an imminent threat that Iran was very close to the enrichment of nuclear capability. I don't know where Joe Kent is getting his information. The president felt he had to strike first to prevent mass casualties."

… Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) to Punchbowl: “Voices like his that cautioned against being overly involved in the wars in the Middle East were good voices to have. I think he was America First from the very beginning, and still is.”

… Fox host Mark Levin: “I wonder if this guy Joe Kent was about to be fired but quickly resigned first. That's how these things typically work. He's part of that radical isolationist Woke Right cabal. Watch how the leftwing media use him to attack the president and the military campaign against Iran. I wonder if he was one of the leakers in the admin. Just asking questions.”

… Sen. John Fetterman to HuffPost: “I don’t really care. I know your readership loves that, and the NYT love it. And then he's going to be the national hero, you know, just like you made, MTG. That that was your mascot for a while. But now her crazy ass is now all about Tucker Carlson. So, I don't really care what he's chosen to do.”

… Podcaster Tim Pool: “The MAGA Coalition is shattered. Trump can say ‘I AM MAGA’ all he wants, and it may be true, but lost support means MAGA is meaningless.”

… Back to Trump in the Oval: Q - You said: ‘they hit Qatar, Saudi Arabia UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait and nobody expected that. We were shocked.’ Are you surprised that nobody briefed you ahead of time that that might be their retaliation? Trump: Nobody. Nobody. No no no no. The greatest experts - nobody thought they were going hit those countries.”

… Trump received a fact-check Community Note on X: “‘Why Iran Will Escalate’ by Nate Swanson, a longtime Iran policy adviser and analyst, was published in Foreign Affairs on Feb. 24, 2026, just 4 days before the conflict began and warned that US strikes on Iran could trigger escalation and retaliation.”

… Swanson was the top WH analyst for Iran, but was fired by Trump after Laura Loomer told Trump that Swanson was part of the ‘Deep State’ and could not be trusted.

… Trump post: “The US has been informed by most of our NATO “Allies” that they don’t want to get involved with our Military Operation against the Terrorist Regime of Iran. I am not surprised by their action, however, because I always considered NATO, where we spend Hundreds of Billions of Dollars per year protecting these same Countries, to be a one way street - We will protect them, but they will do nothing for us, in particular, in a time of need.”

… “Because of the fact that we have had such Military Success, we no longer “need,” or desire, the NATO Countries’ assistance - WE NEVER DID! Likewise, Japan, Australia, or South Korea. In fact, speaking as President of the United States of America, by far the Most Powerful Country Anywhere in the World, WE DO NOT NEED THE HELP OF ANYONE!”

… He was just begging for their help yesterday.

… Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) threatened to leave NATO over it: “Just spoke to Trump about our European allies’ unwillingness to provide assets to keep the Strait of Hormuz functioning, which benefits Europe far more than America. I have never heard him so angry in my life. I share that anger given what’s at stake.”

… “The arrogance of our allies to suggest that Iran with a nuclear weapon is of little concern and that military action to stop the Ayatollah from acquiring a nuclear bomb is our problem not theirs is beyond offensive. The European approach to containing the Ayatollah’s nuclear ambitions have proven to be a miserable failure.”

… “The repercussions of providing little assistance to keep the Strait of Hormuz functioning are going to be wide and deep for Europe and America. I consider myself very forward-leaning on supporting alliances, however at a time of real testing like this, it makes me second guess the value of these alliances.”

… Reporter to Trump today: Q - “Are you thinking about getting out of NATO? Trump: Well I’m disappointed in NATO. I don’t need Congress for that decision. As you probably know, I can make that decision myself.”

… The President requires congressional approval to withdraw from NATO. The National Defense Authorization Act mandates that a withdrawal requires either a two-thirds vote in the Senate or a joint act of Congress, limiting the ability of any president to act unilaterally. That will be another law Trump will try to ignore.

… Rep. Ami Bera (R-CA): “Trump is wrong. He cannot unilaterally withdraw the United States from NATO. Trump’s own Secretary of State authored and successfully passed an amendment while in the Senate to prevent the president from doing exactly this.”

… That would be Marco Rubio. I'm sure he will speak up about this. He's known for his courageous and principled stands. He's also not afraid of Trump, so I'm sure he will do the right thing so don’t worry!

… Trade Rep. Jamieson Greer on Larry Kudlow’s Fox show: Q - “China is the number one consumer of Iranian oil, so they have a huge stake in the Strait or Hormuz. Would they join the coalition to open the strait? We haven't had any luck with NATO. Greer: I don't know if they'll join, but I agree with you. Our hope is they'll be cooperative.”

… Trump is begging China for help now after everyone else rejected him. That’s where we’re at.

… Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY) to Meidas: “The president spent years shitting on our allies, and now he expects them to come to our assistance.”

… Meidas asked Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) about NATO’s rejection of Trump: “Trump has consistently offended and betrayed our allies in NATO. So the expectation that NATO would now support his reckless endeavors is unbelievable.”

… WH Economic Advisor Kevin Hassett went viral with this statement on CNBC today: “If the war were to be extended, it wouldn’t really disrupt the US economy very much at all. It would hurt consumers, and we’d have to think about what we’d have to do about that, but that’s really the last of our concerns right now.“

… Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI): “Well I’m not some sort of political expert but this feels like an unhelpful thing to say.”

… Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT): “Trump’s team of Epstein class advisors says it out loud more often than you’d think: ‘consumers are the last of our concern right now’.”

… Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA): “I want the WH to send Kevin Hassett to every single TV channel and to every single swing House district where he can tell the voters of America that hurting consumers is ‘the last of our concerns.’”

… Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) was asked about gas prices on CNN: “Is there a short term hurt by gas prices being up? Absolutely. And it hurts everybody, including mostly the poorest families. Host: How long do you think those families could be paying more in gas? Scott: I have no idea how long this is going to take. But let’s don’t ever forget why this is going on. They want to destroy our way of life.”

… NOTUS: “6 months before the Trump admin started bombing Iran, the State Dept fired its oil and gas experts. As the war in Iran stretches into its third week, and the Strait of Hormuz - through which 20% of the world’s oil supply usually flows - remains effectively closed, the US govt is without the resources it once had to handle such crises.”

… “In July 2025, as part of Trump’s reduction-in-force initiative (DOGE), the admin laid off staff who would have been responsible for gaming out possible scenarios if the Strait of Hormuz was closed. The agency also let go of staffers with close professional relationships at oil and gas companies in the Middle East and experts tasked with maintaining diplomatic contacts at foreign energy bureaus.”

… Geoffrey Pyatt, former asst. Secretary of State for energy resources: “I’m sure Secretary Rubio wishes he had that expertise available today. Most of that institutional knowledge was lost with the elimination of the bureau and RIFs last fall.”

… Hassett: “Trump and President Xi are good friends and when this war is over - which will be sometime soon - I’m sure they’ll get together and have a lot to talk about. And hopefully the Chinese will express some gratitude for what Trump has done.”

… Hassett: “There’s no way that Trump is gonna back down until he sees this through to the end. Host: What does that mean - ‘sees this through to the end.’ Regime change? The strait is open? Hassett: He will decide.”

… Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) was asked by HuffPost if she will vote for the huge new spending bill to pay for the Iran War: “We’re waiting to get a supplemental request from the WH for the war in Iran. We don’t know what it’s going to be, but it’s probably going to provide its own level of shock.”

… Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) on the floor today: “I heard the gentlelady's speech in which she kind of defended the tax cuts for the rich and basically said we have a spending problem in this country. We do have a spending problem. We're spending $1 billion a day on a reckless illegal war in Iran.”

… Meidas asked Rep. Pat Ryan how embarrassing Pete Hegseth has been during the war: “Hegseth has literally become more deranged than the SNL skits at this point. Each time he screws up, he gets more desperate—he screams louder. He is fucking pathetic. He has the blood of 13 Americans on his hands, and he needs to be held accountable for that.”

… We asked the same question to Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-VA): “I’ve seen him in classified briefings, and I’m embarrassed for him. He can do nothing beyond read the script that’s been given to him. He can’t answer detailed questions. He doesn’t understand the strategy—not that there is one. He is way in over his head.”

… Guardian: “Britain’s national security adviser, Jonathan Powell, attended the final talks between the US and Iran and judged that the offer made by Tehran on its nuclear program was significant enough to prevent a rush to war. Powell thought progress had been made in Geneva and that the deal proposed by Iran was ‘surprising’. Two days after the talks ended, and after a date had been agreed for a further round of technical talks in Vienna, the US and Israel launched the attack on Iran.

… “Powell’s presence at the talks, and his close knowledge of how they were progressing, was confirmed by 3 sources. One source said he was in the building at Oman’s ambassadorial residence in Cologny acting as an adviser, reflecting widespread concern about the US expertise on the talks represented by Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff.”

… “Kushner and Witkoff had invited Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to the Geneva talks, to provide technical expertise, though Kushner would later claim that he and Witkoff had ‘a pretty deep understanding of the issues that matter in this’. Nuclear experts would later say that Witkoff’s pronouncements on the Iran nuclear program were riddled with basic errors.”

… One former official: “Witkoff and Kushner did not bring a US technical team with them. They used Grossi as their technical expert, but that is not his job. So Powell took his own team. The UK team were surprised by what the Iranians put on the table. It was not a complete deal, but it was progress and was unlikely to be the Iranians’ final offer. The British team expected the next round of negotiations to go ahead on the basis of the progress in Geneva.”

… “That next round of talks was due to take place in Vienna on 2 March, but never happened. The US and Israel had launched their all-out attack two days earlier. The UK saw no compelling evidence of an imminent threat of a Iranian missile attack on Europe, or of Iran securing a nuclear weapon. Instead the UK regarded the attack as unlawful and premature since Powell believed the path remained open to a negotiated solution to the long-running issue of how Iran could reassure the US that it was not seeking a nuclear weapon.”

… One diplomat with knowledge of the talks: “We regarded Witkoff and Kushner as Israeli assets that dragged a president into a war he wants to get out of.”

… Mike Johnson was asked by CNN why Congress has done no oversight on the war: Q - “The House has not had a single public hearing with a cabinet official about the cost to American taxpayers and service members. Why not? Johnson: We’re in the midst of a couple of weeks’ long operation that’s very sensitive, and you cannot go outside of a classified briefing to give to the public the info because it would adversely affect our mission.”

… Q: “What does Trump mean when he says the war in Iran will be over when he ‘feels it in my bones’? Johnson: Well, I think his bones are informed by the intelligence. Every president makes a gut decision.”

… Chair of House Dem Caucus Pete Aguilar on the possibility that AI was used in targeting on the girls school: “It never occurred to me that an admin would come in and want to use only AI to target and to kill people, and to have no humans in the kill chain making decisions. This is shocking but that’s clearly the authority that Pete Hegseth wants. It’s scary and is going to necessitate policy.”

Reminder that there is no Bulletin tomorrow because I do my podcast Uncovered where we do a deep dive into the top stories of the week. If you missed yesterday’s Bulletin, you can find it here.

Should be more non-war news as the week goes on with Congress now back in session and some elections happening. There is certainly a good amount in the second half of this Bulletin, but the war still dominates the news.

… Telegraph: “4 days before the bombing of Iran, a report revealed that DOJ removed more than 50 pages of interviews about Trump from the Epstein files, including one victim who claimed the now president abused her when she was a child decades ago.”

… “A recent poll for Zeteo and other outlets found that 52% of people in the US believe the president attacked Iran because of the headlines about Epstein. It found that 81% of Democrats thought the war was a deliberate distraction, compared with 52% of independent voters and 26% of Republicans.”

• Rep. Thomas Massie: “PSA: bombing a country on the other side of the globe won’t make the Epstein files go away, any more than the Dow going above 50,000 will.”

• Marge Greene: “For years we demanded to release the Epstein files - not a single person has been arrested and likely won’t be: no accountability, no justice. Instead, we get a war with Iran on behalf of Israel that will succeed in regime change in Iran.”

• Graham Platner, running for the Senate in Maine: “This war is also being pushed because Trump is in the Epstein files, and other people in the WH, and other