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Joe Kent promotes claim that US tried to kill its downed pilot

April 7, 2026 | | Print Article

Former Trump administration official Joe Kent is under fire for spreading gross Iranian propaganda about a downed pilot.

After Iranian forces shot down a U.S. fighter jet on Friday, one pilot was quickly rescued while the other pilot remained missing until Sunday.

While the second pilot remained missing, Kent spread Iranian conspiracy theories and propaganda on social media, accusing the U.S. government of trying to kill its own pilot.

The propaganda was produced by Tasnim News, an Iranian state-linked media site, and disseminated by Drop Site News, which the Jewish Insider notes is “a far-left news outlet sympathetic to Hamas and totalitarian regimes.”

“Tasnim News, citing a military source, claims U.S. forces are bombing areas in southwest Iran where a missing pilot may be located, alleging Washington has ‘lost hope’ of recovery and is attempting to kill him,” Drop Site News reported on the social media site X.

Kent subsequently retweeted the post and added his own little blurb about “praying for the rescue of our downed pilots.”

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Kent’s conspiracy-laden post attracted massive backlash, including from CNN’s Jake Tapper.

“Former National Counterterrorism Center director Joe Kent sharing Iranian state-linked outlet nonsense claiming, falsely, that the US was trying to kill the then-lost US pilot,” Tapper tweeted Monday morning after the pilot was recovered. “Aged rather poorly, I think it’s fair to say.”

Tapper’s criticism angered Kent, who fired back, accusing him of trying to promote the war with Iran. The former Trump administration official also urged his followers to read all media, including Iranian media.

Look:

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Kent’s posts have since been amplified by some supporters on the right, like embattled commentator Megyn Kelly.

But the majority of respondents have instead slammed Kent not only over his seemingly pro-Iranian views but also over his willingness to hobnob with some of the worst people, including Russian propagandist Glenn Diesen, a Norwegian political commentator.

In an interview with Diesen published around the start of the month, Kent staunchly maintained that the current war in Iran is unnecessary.

“As I said in my resignation letter, I believe that Iran posed no imminent threat to us; Iran was not on the cusp of attacking us,” Kent insisted.

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The real threat, according to him, was and has always been Israel…

“The only imminent threat … was from the Israelis,” he explained. “The Israelis attacked Iran. And we knew that, during this iteration of the war, the Iranians would understand that this was an existential threat to their regime, that the goal would be regime change, and so they responded by retaliating against us.”

“But, again, this whole series of events wouldn’t have taken place if the Israelis would not have attacked. There was no imminent threat,”  he continued.

He also appeared to suggest America was involved with Iran purely because of Israeli influence.

“The Israelis are very effective at what they do. They’re a small country, and so they use a very sophisticated, layered approach to influencing the American government,” he said.

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“Obviously, their grip on Congress, I think, is well documented. They have very active political action committees that use Americans who support Israel to provide a bunch of money to different political candidates, and that gets them a certain degree of access,” he added.

Vivek Saxena
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