Kent, who served as Trump’s Director of the National Counterterrorism until his resignation in March over opposition to the administration’s Iran policy, has become the latest target of the president’s ire, according to Mediaite. Shortly after Kent stepped down, Trump publicly derided him for having remarried “fairly quickly” following the 2019 death of his first wife, Shannon Kent, a U.S. intelligence officer killed by a suicide bomber in Syria.
“His wife was killed,” the president said in March. “He remarried fairly quickly. His wife was killed and I felt badly for him. He ran for Congress, he lost. He ran for Congress again and he lost.” Kent, who ultimately remarried in 2023, had previously mounted two unsuccessful congressional bids in Washington state on a populist, America First platform closely aligned with Trump’s own stated agenda.
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Appearing on SiriusXM with Megyn Kelly on Thursday, Carlson argued that Trump’s rhetoric toward Kent and other widowers betrays a troubling personal attack style that undermines the conservative movement’s claim to defend family values. Kelly pointed out that Trump had also gone after Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) for remarrying a year after his wife’s sudden death, calling the pattern disturbing: “It’s really unbelievable how the president has attacked, not only Massie’s remarriage after he lost his wife, but Joe Kent’s remarriage four years later, after his wife was killed. I mean, it’s insane.”
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Carlson then escalated his criticism by tying Kent’s tragedy directly to decisions made during Trump’s tenure. “And killed by who? Killed by Donald Trump’s administration. Joe Kent’s wife was killed, the mother of his two sons was killed as a [counterintelligence] officer in Syria by a suicide bomb. What was she doing there? She was sent there by the Trump administration to fight another one of Israel’s wars. So, it’s a decision that Donald Trump made that got Joe Kent’s wife killed. That’s a fact. It’s not interpretation. It’s a fact. And now Trump is attacking the guy for getting remarried after that wife is killed serving his administration? It’s it’s almost too much.”
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“Four years later,” Kelly interjected, underscoring the time that had passed before Kent remarried. Carlson simply replied, “Yes.”
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Kelly then contrasted Trump’s attacks on widowers with his own well-known marital history, arguing that moral double standards damage the credibility of the right. “I mean, like, not to put too fine a point on it, but Donald Trump cheated on his wife Ivana Trump with Marla Maples. It was extremely infamous and all over the papers. How criticize these honorable men who lost wives for finding love years later? It’s truly galling. It’s way below the belt.”
