The White House Chief of Staff, General John Kelly, says President Trump is "deep in thought" over the future of the Iran nuclear deal.
The President is widely expected to begin the process of withdrawing from the agreement within the next few hours.
General Kelly was speaking during a surprise press briefing in Washington where he has no plans to resign....despite persistent reports that he's frustrated and unhappy in his role as the President's chief handler.
Our Washington Correspondent Simon Marks reports.
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General John Kelly strode into the White House briefing room something of an enigma.
It's never been entirely apparent why he wants to serve as Donald Trump's White House Chief of Staff.
Is he - as one top Republican suggested last week - one of the handful of White House officials protecting the country from "chaos"?
Does he see it as his duty to push back against the President's wild excesses?
Or is he in fact an ideological fan of the President and everything he stands for?
The veil was lifted…only slightly…when General Kelly started to speak.
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The best job he ever had, he said, was as an enlisted Marine….underscoring the notion that the General is more comfortable taking orders than necessarily giving them.
And yet….there were hints that General Kelly is by no means entirely uncomfortable in his role as President Trump's enforcer….and his enabler.
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Like the President he had a crack at the media….and he seemed to endorse the President's frustration with the reporters who cover them both.
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He denied that he is an "iron hand" inside the White House trying to bring order to the chaos that has existed there since President Trump took over.
But in answering a question about what President Trump plans to do in just a few hours from now about the Iran nuclear deal….and most reports suggest he's going to scupper it….there was a Freudian slip in the General's answer.
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He meant of course that the President doesn't think that the deal will protect America.
But some of the General's military colleagues … including National Security Adviser HR McMaster and Defense Secretary James Mattis have endorsed the Iran deal and urged the President not to turn his back on it.
They appear to have lost the argument….over-ruled by a President who promised voters he would be tough on Tehran.
What General Kelly thinks of all that….who knows.
The White House Chief of Staff retreated from the briefing room….returning to his enigmatic lair.
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