US President Donald Trump on Thursday said that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had informed him that Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, was gay.Speaking in an interview with Fox News, Trump said, “Well, they did say that, but I don’t know if it was only them,” when asked about the claim. He added, “I think a lot of people are saying that,” and said it put the leader off to a “bad start” in Iran, where homosexuality is illegal. His remarks come days after reports suggested that US intelligence had briefed him on the issue. According to earlier media reports, Trump had reacted with surprise during the briefing.Citing sources, The New York Post reported that Trump reacted with visible astonishment and laughed during the intelligence briefing.Others in the room also reportedly found it “hilarious” and joined the president’s reaction, while one senior intelligence official had “not stopped laughing about it for days.”The intelligence inputs also reportedly suggested Mojtaba had a long-term sexual relationship with his childhood tutor. It also said the relationship was with someone who had earlier worked for the Khamenei family and made “aggressive” sexual advances towards men caring for him.Some details about Mojtaba Khamenei’s personal life had surfaced earlier and were cited as adding to the allegations. A classified US diplomatic cable from 2008, later published by WikiLeaks, said he had travelled to the United Kingdom for treatment related to impotence.The State Department file said 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.”
