Sebastian Gorka seeks top U.S. counterterrorism job after Kent resignation

Sebastian Gorka is seeking control of the nation’s central counterterrorism hub as the Trump administration reshapes a post that sits at the intersection of watchlisting, interagency coordination and intelligence analysis. The move follows Joe Kent’s March 17 resignation from the National Counterterrorism Center, a departure that exposed sharp divisions inside the government over the war in Iran and the direction of U.S. counterterrorism policy.

Kent had led the National Counterterrorism Center and served as the president’s principal counterterrorism adviser. In his resignation letter, he said he could not support the war in Iran and argued that Iran posed no imminent threat to the United States. His exit came as the FBI opened an investigation into alleged leaks of classified information, according to CBS News and ABC News, adding another layer of turmoil around a job that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence describes as the government’s central hub for terrorism analysis, interagency coordination and counterterrorism watchlisting.

The center itself was created after the Sept. 11 attacks. ODNI says it was established by executive order in August 2004 and later codified by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004. Whoever runs it helps shape how the United States identifies terrorist threats, shares intelligence across agencies and decides who gets flagged in federal watchlisting systems.

Gorka is already serving as the White House National Security Council’s senior director for counterterrorism, and Donald Trump announced his return to the White House in November 2024. He briefly served in Trump’s first administration in 2017, leaving after about seven months. His background has long drawn scrutiny from security experts, who questioned his clearance issues, his ties to far-right circles in Hungary and his incendiary anti-Muslim rhetoric.

If Gorka takes over the NCTC, it would signal a sharper alignment of counterterrorism policy with Trump’s most loyal national security voices. It would also place one of the administration’s most ideologically outspoken figures over a system already strained by the Iran war, internal dissent and growing debate over which threats deserve the most attention, from foreign terrorist networks to far-left groups abroad.