Is Mojtaba Khamenei Gay? Donald Trump's Reaction to 'Solid' Intel Is Going Viral

Donald Trump was reportedly briefed last week in the US that Iran's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, may be gay, prompting 'solid' laughter from the president and senior officials, according to current and former intelligence sources speaking to the New York Post. The unverified claim regarding Khamenei's sexuality, which US spy agencies are said to consider credible, concerns a man now at the centre of Iran's opaque power structure following the death of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Feb. 28.

The news came after weeks of turmoil inside Iran's ruling elite, following the airstrike that killed the elder Khamenei and other family members and the rapid elevation of Mojtaba, 56, to the role of supreme leader on March 8. Mojtaba had long been described by analysts and dissidents as a powerful behind-the-scenes figure, nicknamed 'the power behind the robes' while serving as gatekeeper to his increasingly frail father, who had ruled the Islamic Republic since 1989.

Two US intelligence officials and a third source close to the White House told the Post that agencies now treat the claims about Mojtaba's sexuality not as disinformation planted by rivals, but as a serious piece of intelligence. All three sources emphasised that the assessment is regarded within government as more than gossip, targeting a man expected to take a hard line on Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programmes following Operation Epic Fury.

Intel Reportedly Leaves Trump in Stitches

Trump reacted with audible shock when first informed that US intelligence believed Mojtaba Khamenei is probably gay. One source said Trump 'couldn't contain his surprise' and burst out laughing, with others in the room reportedly joining in, and at least one senior intelligence official 'not having stopped laughing about it for days.'

The allegation hinges on reports that Mojtaba has had a long-term sexual relationship with a man, but sources diverge slightly on who that person is. Two officials said the intelligence points to his childhood tutor, while a third suggested it involved someone who previously worked for the Khamenei family in another role. None of the sources provided names, nor did they offer physical evidence.

US agencies do not possess photographs or video proof, those quoted acknowledged, but one official insisted the tip comes from 'one of the most protected sources that the government has.' Another noted that the very fact the report was briefed to Trump and other top decision-makers indicates a level of confidence in its reliability. Nothing has been independently confirmed, and all such claims should be treated with caution until more verifiable evidence emerges.

Inside Iran, however, the whispers are not entirely new. The idea that Mojtaba might be gay has reportedly circulated in certain political and clerical circles since at least the May 2024 helicopter crash that killed then-president Ebrahim Raisi, widely regarded as Ali Khamenei's preferred successor. One insider told the Post that the information in Washington has been 'pretty closely held,' suggesting only a small circle of officials had access to it before the recent briefing.

Trump had already dismissed Mojtaba Khamenei in public remarks as a 'lightweight' and an 'unacceptable' choice to lead Iran. Those comments addressed policy rather than personal life and reflected a view in Washington that the younger Khamenei would resist any US pressure to abandon Iran's nuclear ambitions. The new claims about his sexuality add a volatile personal dimension to an already tense geopolitical stand-off.

Old Files and New Rumours About Mojtaba Khamenei

Some of the intrigue surrounding 'Mojtaba Khamenei gay' stories overlaps with older Western intelligence reporting on his health and sex life. A classified US diplomatic cable from 2008, later published by WikiLeaks, described Mojtaba receiving treatment in London for impotence, naming Wellington and Cromwell Hospitals as the locations. The file stated that Mojtaba married 'relatively late in life,' around 30, and attributed the delay to an 'impotency problem' requiring three extended visits to the UK.

The same State Department cable noted that the Khamenei family expected Mojtaba to have children quickly. According to the report, he required a fourth visit to the UK for medical treatment and, after a two-month stay, his wife became pregnant. Those details, long known in Western diplomatic circles, did not directly address his sexual orientation. For some current officials, however, they now form part of a broader picture alongside newer intelligence rather than standing as an isolated medical curiosity.

The human cost surrounding Mojtaba's rise has been brutal. His wife, Zahra, and their teenage son, Mohammad Bagher, were reportedly killed in the February airstrike that also took the life of Ayatollah Ali. Mojtaba is said to have another son and a daughter who survived.

He himself is believed to have been wounded in the same strike and, according to one of the Post's sources, has made 'aggressive' sexual advances towards male carers during his recovery, possibly under heavy medication. This particular claim remains impossible to independently verify.

CBS News alluded to the controversy around Mojtaba's private life in a recent report, noting that the elder Khamenei had privately favoured a different successor partly because of unspecified 'issues' in his son's 'personal life.' One of the Post's sources went further, alleging that Ali Khamenei and others 'suspected he was gay and that was something that people were spreading to try to stop his ascension.' Whether those suspicions reflected genuine concern, political manoeuvring or both is not clear.

The stakes for such a label in Iran are severe. Homosexual conduct is illegal, and sodomy is a capital offence in the country of roughly 93 million people. Human rights groups have long documented cases in which gay men are hanged from construction cranes in public executions intended as warnings. At the same time, the state permits sex reassignment surgery, and there have been repeated reports of gay Iranians being pushed towards such operations to escape prosecution.

The tension between that reality and the alleged private life of the man now running the Islamic Republic is not lost on officials. One of the Post's sources argued that, although 'it's generally frowned upon to out people against their will,' Mojtaba's position at the apex of a system that executes gay people creates a 'clear case of hypocrisy' that, in their view, justifies exposure.

Former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, now believed to be an ally of Mojtaba, famously told a US audience in 2007 that 'In Iran, we don't have homosexuals.' To many Iranians who have lived the opposite reality, the idea that the country's supreme leader might be gay himself will sound either bitterly ironic or like a convenient rumour weaponised by his enemies.

Mojtaba's precise condition and location after the Feb. 28 strikes remain murky. If the intelligence briefed to Trump is accurate, it adds another layer of complexity to a regime already defined by secrecy and contradiction. If it is not, it will go down as a particularly explosive piece of character assassination in a long history of shadow warfare between Tehran and Washington.