{"id":164866,"date":"2026-03-16T11:58:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T11:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/164866\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T11:58:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T11:58:07","slug":"trump-briefed-that-irans-new-supreme-leader-mojtaba-khamenei-is-probably-gay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/164866\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump briefed that Iran\u2019s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei is probably gay"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014\u00a0 President Trump was stunned to learn last week that US intelligence indicates new Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei <\/a>may be gay \u2014 and that his father, the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, feared his suitability to rule the Islamic Republic<\/a> for that reason, The Post can reveal.<\/p>\n

Trump couldn\u2019t contain his surprise and laughed aloud when he was briefed on the intel, according to sources.<\/p>\n

Others in the room also found it \u201chilarious\u201d and joined the president\u2019s reaction, while one senior intelligence official \u201chas not stopped laughing about it for days,\u201d said one person familiar with the briefing.<\/p>\n

The shocking claim was described to The Post by two intelligence community officials and a third person close to the White House.<\/p>\n

All three sources say the implausible-sounding allegation is viewed as credible by US spy agencies, rather than false information intended to undermine Khamenei, 56, who was selected to replace his dead father as supreme leader<\/a> on March 8.<\/p>\n

Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei may be gay, according to US intelligence briefed to President Trump. via REUTERS<\/p>\n

Two of the sources said the intelligence indicated that Mojtaba, who earned the nickname \u201cthe power behind the robes\u201d while serving as his aging dad\u2019s gatekeeper, has had a long-term sexual relationship with his childhood tutor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The third source said the intelligence indicated the affair was with a person who formerly worked for the Khamenei family.<\/p>\n

Mojtaba, who is believed to have been wounded in the same Feb. 28 airstrike that killed his father and other members of his family<\/a>, has made \u201caggressive\u201d sexual overtures to men caring for him, possibly while under the influence of heavy medication, one of The Post\u2019s sources said.<\/p>\n

President Trump and aides reportedly laughed aloud at the intelligence report. REUTERS<\/p>\n

Mojtaba\u2019s father, the former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, allegedly suspected his son was gay, sources said. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

US spy agencies do not have photographic evidence of Mojtaba Khamenei\u2019s alleged sexual attraction to men, but the sources insisted the tip is solid, with one saying it was \u201cderived from one of the most protected sources that the government has.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that this was elevated to the highest of high levels shows you there\u2019s some confidence in this,\u201d added a second source.<\/p>\n

Mojtaba\u2019s purported sexual orientation had been whispered about inside Iran since at least the May 2024 helicopter crash that killed then-president Ebrahim Raisi<\/a>, Ali Khamenei\u2019s presumed favorite to be the next supreme leader, sources said.<\/p>\n

Within the US government, \u201cit\u2019s been a pretty closely held piece of information,\u201d one insider said.<\/p>\n

Trump previously dismissed Mojtaba Khamenei as a \u201clightweight\u201d and an \u201cunacceptable\u201d choice to run Iran.<\/a> The new supreme leader is widely considered to be someone who would not bend to US demands to abandon the nuclear and ballistic missile programs that prompted Operation Epic Fury.<\/p>\n

Mojtaba Khamenei allegedly has carried on a years-long relationship with a former tutor. via REUTERS<\/p>\n

Some elements of Mojtaba Khamenei\u2019s sex life have been reported before and may lend credence to the allegation.<\/p>\n

A classified US diplomatic cable from 2008<\/a>, published by WikiLeaks, described Mojtaba being treated in the UK for impotence<\/a>, though that report did not identify what may have caused the condition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The State Department file says that Mojtaba married \u201crelatively late in life\u201d\u2013 around age 30 \u2014 \u201creportedly due to an impotency problem treated and eventually\u00a0resolved during three extended visits to the UK, at Wellington and Cromwell Hospitals, London.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMojtaba was expected by his family to produce children quickly, but\u00a0needed a fourth visit to the UK for medical treatment; after a stay of two months, his wife became pregnant,\u201d the leaked file said.<\/p>\n

Mojtaba\u2019s wife, Zahra, and teenage son, Mohammad Bagher, reportedly died in the airstrike that killed his father. The new supreme leader has another son and a daughter.<\/p>\n

The theocracy\u2019s top man has made \u201caggressive\u201d sexual advances while receiving medical care, one source said. KHAMENEI.IR\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The allegation of homosexuality was alluded to in a CBS News report <\/a>on Sunday that said the elder Khamanei, who had ruled Iran since 1989, preferred a different successor in part because of unspecified \u201cissues\u201d in Mojtaba\u2019s \u201cpersonal life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHis father and others suspected he was gay and that was something that people were spreading to try to stop his ascension,\u201d one of The Post\u2019s sources explained.<\/p>\n

Homosexual conduct is illegal in Iran, though the government does allow surgical sex change operations, which some gay men reportedly are pressured into undergoing to avoid criminal penalties.<\/p>\n

Sodomy is a capital offense in the nation of 93 million people, with some gay Iranians infamously hanged from construction cranes as a warning to others.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Iran, we don\u2019t have homosexuals,\u201d former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is believed to be an ally of the younger Khamenei, claimed in 2007<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One of The Post\u2019s sources said that although it\u2019s generally frowned upon to out people against their will, there\u2019s a clear case of hypocrisy to justify doing so against Mojtaba.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there was ever a time where it was OK to out somebody, it would be when it\u2019s a leader of a repressive Islamic theocracy that hangs gay people by cranes,\u201d this person said.<\/p>\n

Mojtaba Khamenei\u2019s current whereabouts and the status of his recovery from the Feb. 28 airstrikes remain murky. <\/p>\n

The White House did not provide comment for this article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014\u00a0 President Trump was stunned to learn last week that US intelligence indicates new Iranian Supreme Leader…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[153,3253,14670,412,164,66834,9,11,10,62206,87,58,1076],"class_list":["post-164866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-donald-trump","tag-intelligence","tag-iran","tag-lgbtqia","tag-middle-east","tag-mojtaba-khamenei","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-operation-epic-fury","tag-politics","tag-us-news","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}