CNN's Kaitlan Collins Exposes Donald Trump's Former Support for Joe Kent Before He Called Him 'Weak': Read the Receipts

CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins exposed Donald Trump's past support for former National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent with video receipts after the president branded him as "weak" following his recent resignation.

"President Trump, as you might imagine, did not respond well to the public way that Joe Kent resigned over what he is doing in Iran," Collins, 33, said during the Tuesday, March 17, episode of CNN's The Source with Kaitlan Collins.

Headlines broke earlier that day that Kent, 44, resigned from his post as National Counterterrorism Center Director in a scathing letter posted on social media, condemning the Trump administration's rationale for the ongoing war in Iran.

"I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran," he wrote via X. "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."

Kent has supported Trump, 79, since his 2016 campaign, even backing him during the controversial January 6 riots.

During the CNN segment, Collins said Trump "did not respond well" to Kent's public resignation, noting how highly he once spoke of the former CIA officer.

"Joe Kent is someone who is not only an Army Special Forces veteran and a former CIA officer," Collins told her viewers. "He also has a history of promoting conspiracy theories, and documented associations with white nationalists, that have been widely criticized and widely reported on."

Collins then showed a clip of Trump speaking about Kent before he was appointed to his role in July 2025, where he can be heard saying, "He does fantastically on television. I watched his interviews. I love what he says. But he’s a strong guy, he’s a handsome guy. Said that guy was good looking at the whole package."

This sharply contrasted a recent clip following Kent's resignation, in which Trump said he "always thought [Kent] was weak on security."

"Very weak on security. I didn't know him well, but I thought he seemed like a pretty nice guy," Trump said publicly. "But when I read his statement, I realized that it's a good thing that he's out, because he said that Iran was not a threat."

The violence in the Middle East began last month when the United States and Israel launched airstrikes on multiple cities across Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

In response to Kent's resignation letter, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote in a statement posted via X, "The absurd allegation that President Trump made this decision based on the influence of others, even foreign countries, is both insulting and laughable."