President Donald Trump said Joe Kent, a former Army Special Forces soldier and unsuccessful congressional candidate in Washington state, would “help us keep America safe by eradicating all terrorism.” (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
President Donald Trump on Monday nominated Joe Kent, a former Army Special Forces soldier and two-time Republican candidate for a congressional seat in southwest Washington, to be director of the National Counterterrorism Center.
“As a soldier, Green Beret, and CIA officer, Joe has hunted down terrorists and criminals his entire adult life,” Trump wrote on X. “Joe will help us keep America safe by eradicating all terrorism, from the jihadists around the World, to the cartels in our backyard.”
A short time later, Kent responded on the social media platform.
“It’s an honor to serve our nation again, time to keep our nation safe & strong!” he wrote.
Trump’s announcement comes three months after Kent lost a bid for a U.S. House seat for a second time to Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez.
The first run came in 2022. Kent, an ardent Trump supporter, beat incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler in the 3rd Congressional District primary. He and other conservative Republicans targeted Herrera Beutler for her vote to impeach Trump in 2021.
But that fall, Kent couldn’t hold the seat for Republicans, losing to Gluesenkamp Perez, a relative unknown, by 2,629 votes in what was considered one of the biggest upsets of that year’s elections.
In their rematch in November, Gluesenkamp Perez beat Kent by 16,000 votes.
Kent is an Oregon native. He grew up in Portland and, at 18, enlisted in the U.S. Army. He had 11 combat deployments and served as a Ranger and Special Forces soldier. He has a degree in strategic studies and defense analysis from Norwich University. In 2020, he served as a foreign affairs advisor to the Trump campaign.
In 2019, his wife, Shannon Kent, a Navy cryptologic technician, was killed by an Islamic State group suicide bomber in northeastern Syria. Kent remarried in 2023 and lives in Yacolt.
Kent would lead an agency founded in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks and tasked with gathering and analyzing information to help thwart terrorism. He would oversee a staff of more than 1,000 people and answer to the director of national intelligence.
The appointment is subject to Senate confirmation.
During his 2022 run for Congress, Kent drew scrutiny for links to far-right groups and his embrace of election conspiracy theories.
“He’s a destructive choice to lead the National Counterterrorism Center,” Washington state Democratic Party chair Shasti Conrad said in a statement on Monday. “Someone who called for defunding the FBI and promotes conspiracy theories cannot be trusted with our national security.”
Washington state Republican Party chair Jim Walsh applauded Trump’s selection of Kent. “Excellent news!” he posted on social media.
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