WASHINGTON — President Trump on Thursday confirmed The Post’s scoop that US intelligence officials briefed him that new Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei may be gay — saying the disclosure makes for “a bad start” leading the Islamic theocracy.
Fox News anchor Jesse Watters asked Trump point-blank in a group interview on “The Five:” “Did the CIA tell you that Ayatollah Jr is gay?”
“Well, they did say that, but I don’t know if it was only them. I think a lot of people are saying that, which puts him off to a bad start in that particular country,” Trump said.
Two US intelligence community officials and a source close to the White House told The Post last week that Trump and his senior advisers erupted in laughter upon learning that Mojtaba, 56, might be gay during a private briefing.
The Post’s sources noted the irony that the Islamic Republic is a repressive theocracy that hangs gay people by cranes while forcing others to undergo sex-change operations.
US intelligence indicates that Mojtaba Khamenei may have engaged in a years-long sexual relationship with his male tutor — with one official saying the information was “derived from one of the most protected sources that the government has.”
One source said that Mojtaba also allegedly made “aggressive” sexual advances on the men caring for him — possibly while heavily medicated — after being injured in airstrikes on Feb. 28.
Khamenei was selected to replace his dead father as supreme leader on March 8, despite the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei opposing his son’s ascension.
“His father and others suspected he was gay, and that was something that people were spreading to try to stop his ascension,” a source explained.
A classified US diplomatic cable from 2008, published by WikiLeaks, described Mojtaba being treated in the UK for impotence, though that report did not identify what may have caused the condition.
The State Department file says Mojtaba married “relatively late in life” — around age 30 — “reportedly due to an impotency problem treated and eventually resolved during three extended visits to the UK, at Wellington and Cromwell Hospitals, 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.
Mojtaba’s 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.
Trump confirmed The Post’s reporting — after side-stepping a question on the intelligence last week — before veering into ridiculing “gays for Palestine,” noting that Hamas would “kill them instantly.”
The president added that he did “very well with the gay vote” and “I even played the gay national anthem” — the Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.” — as his campaign anthem.
“No Republican has ever gotten the gay vote like I did, and I’m very proud of it,” he said. “I think it’s great. Perhaps it’s because I’m from New York City, I don’t know but, but the gay national anthem was my walk-off.”
Trump is attempting to strike a deal with Iranian officials after 27 days of heavy US-Israeli bombardment of the nation — with goals including the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to international shipping and Tehran’s relinquishment of its nuclear enrichment program.
The president has referred to Mojtaba Khamenei as an “unacceptable” leader of the nation because he is viewed as unlikely to bend to Trump’s demands after serving as a gatekeeper to his assassinated father.
