By Steve Holland and Trevor Hunnicutt
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE, March 29 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday hinted at differences among his top aides on their approach to Iran, saying that his intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard was "softer" than him on curbing Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
Trump, who also suggested that a deal could be near to contain Tehran's nuclear ambitions, said "yeah, sure," when asked by a reporter whether he retained confidence in Gabbard, the U.S. director of national intelligence.
"She's a little bit different in her thought process than me," Trump said aboard Air Force One as he returned to Washington after a weekend at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. "But that doesn't make somebody not available to serve. I would say that I'm very strong on the fact that I don't want Iran to have a nuclear weapon because if they had a nuclear weapon, they'd use it immediately. I think she's probably a little bit softer on that issue, but that's okay."
Trump seldom acknowledges debate among top officials over the joint U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran, which is entering its second month.
Vice President JD Vance has staked out a cautious approach on conflict and some other top Republicans have privately worried about the conflict's domestic economic and political costs.
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The Republican president's administration has given conflicting messages about the state of Iran's nuclear program.
In the run-up to the war, some top administration officials said Iran was weeks away from developing a nuclear weapon, although others — including the president — claimed that another U.S.-Israeli campaign last summer had destroyed its weapons program.
Iran has maintained that its nuclear program was for peaceful purposes.
Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman, told lawmakers earlier this month that the U.S. intelligence community had "high confidence" that it knows where Iran keeps its stockpile of highly enriched uranium. At the time, she declined to discuss in a public session whether the U.S. has the means to destroy it.
An official with close ties to Gabbard, Joe Kent, who headed the National Counterterrorism Center, earlier this month resigned over the war, saying Iran posed no imminent threat to the U.S.
(Reporting by Steve Holland aboard Air Force One and Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington; Editing by Sergio Non and Stephen Coates)
