More from the article ...

... But the ideological fault line Kent's defection exposed this week is proving harder to paper over, cracking open a deepening battle for the soul of the Republican Party.

Tucker Carlson, whose podcast is a megaphone for the anti-war populist right, had Kent on his program within 36 hours of his resignation. Far-right commentator Candace Owens booked him for a Thursday event at the old Trump Hotel in Washington.

And the White House was doing what it has done since the war began -- insisting that the critics amount to little more than a loud, online fringe with no real purchase in Trump's MAGA party.

But there is a clear risk in dismissing Kent. Carlson and Owens, whose average viewership rivals CNN's primetime lineup, have both suggested, or hosted people who have suggested, that Israel is behind a range of ills -- from leading the U.S. into a war with Iran to the murder of Charlie Kirk. Kent's resignation letter, which he shared on X, said intelligence showed Iran posed no imminent threat despite Trump's assertions and that Israel pushed the U.S. into war. ...