Donald Trump's White House and the State Department appear to be at odds over whether the US President has agreed to honour a deal to accept 1250 refugees in offshore denton centres from the Turnbull government,
The confusion may reflect disunity between Mr Trump's team on the US-Australia refugee pact and an attempt to placate the Republican's anti-immigration supporter base.
The unique Australia arrangement jars against the contentious entry restrictions the President placed on all refugees, as well as immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries on the weekend.
In the latest bizarre twist emblematic of the mayhem since Mr Trump took over, a US State Department official confirmed in an email to The Australian Financial Review at 9:15am AEDT Thursday that the deal inherited by Mr Trump from former president Barack Obama would proceed.
"Out of respect for close ties to our Australian ally and friend, we will honour the agreement to accept some refugees from resettlement centres on Nauru and Papua New Guinea. Any refugees coming to US shores would only come to the United States in accordance with the recently signed executive order."
But as little as two hours earlier, a White House official told the ABC in a statement: "The President is still considering whether or not he will move forward with this deal at this time."
"He is considering doing it because of the long and good relationship we have with Australia."
Misgivings about the deal
Michael Anton, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, also confirmed to the ABC and others that the President was still evaluating the agreement, the ABC reported.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has expressed confidence Mr Trump will proceed and Australian officials in Washington also believe the deal is done.
The Financial Review has been told that at least one senior White House adviser had deep misgivings about honouring the Obama administration's agreement with Mr Turnbull.
Immigration hardliners and Islam sceptics, chief strategist Stephen Bannon and policy adviser Stephen Miller, were the key drafters of an executive order that temporarily halts the annual admission of 110,000 refugees for 120 days and indefinitely for refugees from Syria.
The presidential order barred for 90 days immigrants from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
The travel ban caused mayhem at airports, international protests and led to the sacking of the acting attorney general for failing to enforce it,
At the eleventh hour, a special carve out was made in the executive order for Australia. Most of the refugees on the two Pacific Islands are from Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East and Africa, including Iran, Somalia, Syria, Pakistan and Sudan.
Mr Turnbull had earlier seemingly sealed the deal with Mr Trump in a 25-minute weekend phone call and said on Wednesday he was confident Mr Trump would go ahead with the agreement
The latest turn follows a chaotic 24 hours in which Mr Trump's press secretary said on Tuesday the US would accept 1250 refugees from resettlement centres in Papua New Guinea and Nauru. Soon after a White House official reportedly rang the ABC's Washington bureau to say the President was still considering the issue and it was not finalised.
The White House has not responded to several requests from the Financial Review.
Mr Turnbull has publicly insisted for weeks he believed Mr Trump would follow through on Mr Obama's commitment from November and has declined to criticise Mr Trump's immigration order that critics claim targets Muslims.
US Department of Homeland Security officials met with Australian counterparts in Washington this week to implement the unique US-Australia arrangement.
It is not clear if Mr Turnbull gave Mr Trump or Mr Obama a quid-pro-quo promise in return for assisting Canberra on a difficult political issue for the Prime Minister.
Mr Trump is a billionaire real estate mogul who prides himself on being a great deal maker and extracting leverage in negotiations.
On Tuesday at a press briefing in Washington, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Mr Trump would "honour" the agreement and the refugees would be subject to "extreme vetting".
Mr Turnbull said in Canberra on Wednesday: "As you've heard from the President's own spokesman this morning, the Trump administration has committed to progress with the arrangements to honour the deal...that was entered into with the Obama administration," he said.
"And that was the assurance the President gave me when we spoke on the weekend."
He was responding after the ABC initially reported the White House was potentially backsliding on the agreement after Mr Spicer's comments.
