WASHINGTON — President Trump was surprised to learn last week that U.S. intelligence indicated that Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei may be gay — and that his father, the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, feared he was fit to rule the Islamic Republic for that reason, The Post can reveal.
Trump couldn’t contain his surprise and laughed out loud when told about the intel, according to sources.
Others in the room also found it “laughable” and joined the president’s reaction, while one intelligence official “hasn’t stopped laughing about it for days,” said one person familiar with the briefing.
The shocking claim was described to The Post by two intelligence community officials and a third person close to the White House.
All three sources say the allegations are considered credible by US intelligence agencies, rather than false information aimed at discrediting Khamenei, 56, who was appointed to replace his deceased father as supreme leader on March 8.
Two sources said intelligence indicated that Mojtaba, who earned the nickname “the power behind the clothes” while working as a gatekeeper for his elderly father, had a long-term sexual relationship with his childhood teacher.
A third source said that intelligence indicates that they were having an affair with someone who worked for the Khamenei family.
Mojtaba, who is believed to have been injured in the same incident on February 28 that killed his father and other members of his family, made “aggressive” sexual allegations against the men in his care, who may have been on heavy medication, one of The Post’s sources said.
US intelligence agencies have no photographic evidence that Mojtaba Khamenei has sexually attracted men, but sources have insisted the point is strong, with one saying it was “taken from some of the most protected sources the government has.”
“The fact that this has been raised to such a high level shows that you have some confidence in this,” added the second source.
Mojtaba’s alleged sexual behavior has been rumored inside Iran since at least the May 2024 helicopter crash that killed then-president Ebrahim Raisi, who was thought to be Ali Khamenei’s favorite as the next supreme leader, the sources said.
Inside the US government, “it was very intimate information,” one insider said.
Trump has previously dismissed Mojtaba Khamenei as “simplistic” and an “unacceptable” choice to manage Iran. The new supreme leader is widely seen as someone who will not bend to US demands to abandon the nuclear and ballistic missile programs that led to Operation Epic Fury.
Some aspects of Mojtaba Khamenei’s sex life have been reported before and may provide evidence to this allegation.
A classified cable from US lawyers from 2008, published by WikiLeaks, explained that Mojtaba was being treated for impotence in the UK, although that report did not reveal what caused the condition.
The State Department file says Mojtaba married “too late” – about 30 years – “reportedly due to impotence which was treated and finally resolved during three visits to the UK, Wellington and Cromwell Hospitals, London.”
“Mojtaba was expected by his family to deliver the children soon, but he needed to visit the UK for the fourth time for treatment; after staying for two months, his wife became pregnant,” the leaked file said.
Mojtaba’s wife, Zahra, and twelve-year-old son, Mohammad Bagher, reportedly died in the plane crash that killed their father. The new supreme leader has another son and daughter.
The homosexuality allegations were referenced in a CBS News report on Sunday that said the elder Khamanei, who has ruled Iran since 1989, was favoring a successor in part because of unspecified “problems” in Mojtaba’s “personal life.”
“His father and others suspected that he was gay, which is something that people were spreading in an attempt to stop his ascension,” explained one of The Post’s sources.
Homosexual behavior is illegal in Iran, although the government allows sex reassignment operations, which some gay men are reportedly forced to do to avoid criminal penalties.
Sodomy is a death sentence in the nation of 93 million people, and some gay Iranians have been hanged from construction cranes as a warning to others.
“In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals,” former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, believed to be a close friend of Khamenei, said in 2007.
One of The Post’s sources said that although people generally don’t like it, there is a clear case of hypocrisy showing that he did that against Mojtaba.
“If there was ever a time when it was okay to out someone, it would be when the leader of an Islamic oppressive organization hangs gay people from cranes,” the person said.
Mojtaba Khamenei’s current whereabouts and the status of his recovery from the Feb. 28 is still calm.
The White House did not provide comment on this article.
