American President Donald Trump on Tuesday welcomed the resignation of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center director, Joe Kent.

Mr Kent, whose roles involved advising Mr Trump on terror threats, resigned on Tuesday, stating, “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.”

Speaking after a meeting at the White House with Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin, Mr Trump disagreed with Mr Kent’s argument that Iran was not a threat. He said he had always presumed that the former director was weak on security.

“I read his statement. I always thought he was a nice guy, but I always thought he was weak on security, very weak on security,” Mr Trump said.

“I didn’t know him well, but I thought he seemed like a pretty nice guy, but when I read his statement, I realised that it’s a good thing that he’s out,” he said.

Insisting that Iran posed a threat to the U.S. and other countries, Mr Trump said the important concern should be whether or not corresponding actions were to be taken.

Justifying his actions against Iran, Mr Trump said his earlier decision to terminate Iran’s nuclear deal prevented a nuclear war four years ago.

“Iran was a threat. Every country realised what a threat Iran was. The question is whether or not they wanted to do something about it,” Mr Trump said.

He added, “If I didn’t terminate Obama’s horrible deal that he made, the Iran nuclear deal, you would have had a nuclear war four years ago. You would have had a nuclear holocaust, and you would have had it again if we didn’t bomb the site.”

The president maintained that Iran posed a “tremendous threat,” noting that anyone with a contrary view is unsavvy.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt equally faulted the basis of Mr Kent’s resignation.

In a post on X, Ms Leavitt stated that Mr Kent’s rationale that Iran posed no imminent threat to the U.S. was false.

“President Trump would never make the decision to deploy military assets against a foreign adversary in a vacuum. Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. The Iranian regime is evil.

“It proudly killed Americans, waged war against our country, and openly threatened us all the way up to the launch of Operation Epic Fury.

“Iran was aggressively expanding their short-range ballistic missiles to combine with their naval assets to give themselves immunity, meaning they would have a degree of capabilities that would give them immunity to hold us and the rest of the world hostage,” Ms Leavitt stated.