United States President Donald Trump reportedly reacted with surprise after intelligence officials briefed him that Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, may be gay.
According to a report by the New York Post, Trump laughed during the briefing after US intelligence presented claims suggesting Khamenei’s late father, Ali Khamenei, had previously questioned his son’s suitability to rule the Islamic Republic because of the issue.
Sources familiar with the briefing said the president reacted with visible amusement and others in the room also found the claim “hilarious.” One senior intelligence official was said to have continued laughing about the briefing days later.
The report cited two intelligence community officials and another person close to the White House, who all said US spy agencies consider the allegation credible rather than disinformation aimed at undermining the 56-year-old cleric.
Khamenei was selected as Iran’s supreme leader on March 8 following the death of his father.
Two of the sources claimed intelligence suggested Mojtaba Khamenei had maintained a long-term sexual relationship with his childhood tutor. Another source said the alleged relationship involved someone who previously worked for the Khamenei family.
The sources also claimed Khamenei, who was reportedly wounded in a February 28 airstrike that killed several members of his family, made “aggressive” sexual advances toward men caring for him while recovering from his injuries.
US intelligence agencies reportedly do not possess photographic evidence supporting the allegation. However, one source said the information was “derived from one of the most protected sources that the government has.”
“The fact that this was elevated to the highest of high levels shows you there’s some confidence in this,” added a second source.
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Speculation about Mojtaba Khamenei’s personal life reportedly circulated inside Iran after the May 2024 helicopter crash that killed former Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who had been widely viewed as Ali Khamenei’s preferred successor.
Within the US government, the information had remained tightly restricted, one insider said.
Trump had earlier criticised Mojtaba Khamenei as a “lightweight” and described him as an “unacceptable” choice to lead Iran. Analysts widely believe the new supreme leader is unlikely to accept US demands to abandon Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.
Details about Mojtaba Khamenei’s private life have surfaced before. A classified US diplomatic cable from 2008, later published by WikiLeaks, said he had travelled to London for treatment related to impotence.
The document stated that Khamenei married around age 30 and received medical treatment during several visits to the United Kingdom at Wellington and Cromwell hospitals in London.
“Mojtaba was expected by his family to produce children quickly, but needed a fourth visit to the UK for medical treatment; after a stay of two months, his wife became pregnant,” the leaked file said.
Reports said his wife, Zahra, and his teenage son, Mohammad Bagher, died in the same airstrike that killed his father. He is believed to have two other children.
The issue of his sexual orientation was also referenced in a report by CBS News, which said the elder Khamenei had concerns about “issues” in Mojtaba’s “personal life.”
“His father and others suspected he was gay and that was something that people were spreading to try to stop his ascension,” one of the sources said.
Homosexual conduct remains illegal in Iran, though the government allows gender reassignment surgery in some cases.
Same-sex relations can carry severe punishment under Iranian law. In the past, Iranian officials have denied the presence of homosexuality in the country.
“In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals,” former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in 2007.
One of the sources defended the disclosure of the allegation despite the sensitivity surrounding sexual orientation.
“If there was ever a time where it was OK to out somebody, it would be when it’s a leader of a repressive Islamic theocracy that hangs gay people by cranes,” the source said.
The current whereabouts of Mojtaba Khamenei and details about his recovery from the February 28 airstrikes remain unclear.
The White House declined to comment on the report.
(New York Post)