Right-Wing Conspiracists/Nationalists Joe Kent Now Runs U.S. Counterterrorism.
Welcome to the Era of National Negligence.
On June 14, 2025, gunfire ripped through two suburban homes in Minnesota.
State Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette were shot first, ambushed on their back patio during morning coffee. Hours later, Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark were killed in their living room. Both lawmakers were known progressives, advocates for abortion rights and police reform.
Their killer, Vance Boelter, was a white male extremist with a manifesto in his truck and a list of nearly 70 additional names. His targets? Democratic lawmakers, journalists, and reproductive rights advocates.
It was a political assassination, a domestic terrorist attack, and it barely made it through a weekend news cycle.
Just six weeks later, on July 30, 2025, the United States Senate confirmed Joe Kent as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC). The vote was 52 to 44, almost entirely along party lines.
Kent is now in charge of the federal agency tasked with identifying and coordinating responses to exactly the kind of ideological violence that just left two public servants dead.
The tragedy in Minnesota wasn’t isolated. Kent’s appointment isn’t a coincidence. It’s a signal.
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The Ideologue Now Leading America’s Terror Watchdogs
Joe Kent’s résumé is built for campaign ads: Green Beret, CIA paramilitary officer, eleven combat deployments. But his recent public record tells a different story, one steeped in conspiracy, ideological radicalism, and dangerous alliances.
Kent has parroted election denialism, claimed the January 6th attack on the Capitol was a false-flag operation, and appeared on shows aligned with white nationalist and Christian nationalist voices. During Trump’s first administration, Kent reportedly pressured intelligence officials to alter reports to reflect anti-immigration narratives.
Now, he controls an agency created in the wake of 9/11 to coordinate threat intelligence across the CIA, FBI, DHS, and DOD. The NCTC is supposed to be apolitical, analytical, and focused on the most imminent threats—foreign and domestic.
Under Kent’s direction, that mission is being redefined. The NCTC has already begun shifting resources toward “border threats,” immigrant gangs, and urban crime, echoing MAGA talking points about cartels and “invasions.” At the same time, staff tasked with tracking white supremacist radicalization have reported reassignment or attrition.
In short, the country’s top terrorism agency is being redirected away from the threat that’s actually killing people, and toward the threat that polls best in Republican primaries.
Institutional Retreat: How the FBI and ATF Are Backing Off the Real Threats
The NCTC is only part of the picture. Other core security agencies are following the same playbook.
In March 2025, the FBI reduced staffing in its Domestic Terrorism Operations Section and scrapped an internal tagging system that had helped agents track domestic terror investigations. Casework on white nationalist militias and anti-government extremists has been quietly de-emphasized. In some cases, agents have been redirected to focus on immigration, left-wing protest groups, or “anarchist threats”, despite no recent data suggesting they pose a national security danger.
Similarly, the ATF, already strained under budget cuts, has rolled back partnerships with local law enforcement that had previously targeted illegal gun trafficking linked to far-right groups. Several joint task forces have disbanded altogether.
This quiet purge of institutional focus on right-wing terrorism is not just tactical. It is ideological. It reflects a deliberate decision to redefine what—and who—is considered dangerous.
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The Threat Is Rising. The Watchdogs Are Blinking.
On the surface, America continues about its business—schools open, campaigns roll on, football season inches closer—but underneath, the signs of violent escalation are undeniable.
Every few days, there’s another shooting. Another hate crime. Another elected official under threat. It doesn’t always make national news anymore because it’s too familiar. But the facts are devastating.
Between 2001 and 2023, more Americans were killed in attacks by far-right extremists—white supremacists, anti-government militias, and Christian nationalist radicals—than by any other domestic ideological group. In 2019, far-right actors were responsible for 66% of all terror plots in the U.S. In 2020, that number rose to 90%. The Department of Homeland Security has consistently warned that white supremacy remains the “most persistent and lethal threat” to the homeland.
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That’s the landscape Joe Kent steps into: not one of emerging danger, but one where the fire is already burning.
The shootings in Minnesota didn’t happen in a vacuum. They were the result of years of radicalization, of rhetoric from right-wing leaders calling Democrats enemies, abortion supporters “baby killers,” and journalists “the enemy of the people.” The killer, Vance Boelter, didn’t just wake up one morning with a rifle and a list of names. He came from an ecosystem that incubates this violence, online and off.
See our reporting here:
And still, the institutions built to protect Americans from this kind of threat are being hollowed out from within.
Mass shootings, many with ideological motives, occur on a near-daily basis in the U.S. Hate crimes against Jewish, Black, Asian American, and LGBTQ+ communities are on the rise. Bomb threats have become routine at libraries and public schools. Local election workers report unprecedented levels of harassment. School boards now meet under police protection. Federal judges wear bulletproof vests.
The people making these threats are not foreign operatives. They’re not religious radicals from halfway around the world. They’re Americans—armed, angry, and increasingly organized.
And yet, the response is disappearing. The FBI’s domestic terrorism division has been quietly downsized. Tools used to track extremist cases have been shelved. Analysts who once flagged these threats are being redirected or removed.
The watchdogs are blinking, and the threat is no longer rising.
It’s here.
And yet, the government is walking away.
What Comes After the Rot?
Even if a future administration reverses these policies, the infrastructure may be too damaged to recover quickly. Intelligence databases are being shuttered. Career experts are resigning or being pushed out. Inter-agency trust is fraying, both inside the U.S. and with global allies who rely on us to detect and disrupt violent networks.
The result isn’t just increased risk. It’s systemic paralysis. The next attack might not be preventable, not because the threat was too complex, but because we stopped looking.
This Is Not Incompetence. This Is Design.
The appointment of Joe Kent isn’t the problem. It’s the symptom.
He’s not the first MAGA loyalist installed in a powerful, security-adjacent role. He’s just the most dangerous so far. Because when a government tells you who they think the enemy is—and who they don’t—you should believe them.
In the Trump administration’s eyes, immigrants are the threat. Protesters are the threat. Women with signs are the threat.
But armed white men with manifestos? Those are just patriots who went too far.
So yes, Joe Kent now leads the National Counterterrorism Center.
And two lawmakers in Minnesota are dead.
This isn’t a story about oversight or error. It’s about what happens when ideology replaces vigilance. When the institutions built to protect us are repurposed to protect the powerful. When our watchdogs are trained to bark at phantoms while ignoring the intruder inside the house.
This isn’t greatness. This is neglect.
This is America, gasping.
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Bibliography:
"Conspiracy Theorist With Extremist Ties Confirmed as Trump's Counterterrorism Chief." The Daily Beast, July 30, 2025.
"Senate Confirms Trump's Pick for Counterterrorism Agency, a Former Green Beret with Extremist Ties." Associated Press, July 30, 2025.
"Joe Kent Takes the Reins at the National Counterterrorism Center." SOFREP, July 31, 2025.
"National Counterterrorism Center." Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
"FBI Scales Back Staffing, Tracking of Domestic Terrorism Probes, Sources Say." Reuters, March 21, 2025.
"FBI Investigations of Far Right on Road to Nowhere Under Kash Patel, Experts Warn." The Guardian, February 28, 2025.
"The War Comes Home: The Evolution of Domestic Terrorism in the United States." Center for Strategic and International Studies, October 22, 2020.
"The Rising Threat of Domestic Terrorism in the U.S. and Federal Efforts to Combat It." U.S. Government Accountability Office, March 2, 2023.
"What NIJ Research Tells Us About Domestic Terrorism." National Institute of Justice. January 4, 2024.
"Domestic Terrorism in the United States." Wikipedia.
"Right-Wing Terrorism." Wikipedia.
 | A guest post by
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This country has always had a love affair with the Nazi party. During WWII, there were more than 10 times more Japanese-Americans interred than German-Americans and under much harsher conditions. Nazi support also eminated from the highest levels of business, celebrity and politics. Names like Ford, Hearst, McCarthy and Lindbergh commonly pop up as Nazi sympathizers. Others were outwardly anti-Nazi but showed support through there actions. With the proliferation of false information in our modern world, we are now faced with the prospect of an Orwellian existence under Nazi control. Sinclair Lewis' warning was prescient. Also, history does not repeat itself but it rhymes.
"HOPE"