Donald Trump Reacts To US Intelligence That Iran’s New Supreme Leader Is Likely Gay – The Hook news

A claim about the private life of Iran’s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, burst into public view on Monday after the New York Post reported that President Donald Trump had been briefed on U.S. intelligence assessing that Khamenei was “probably gay,” with the paper saying American officials regarded the information as credible and tied it to long-running concerns inside Iran’s ruling establishment about his suitability to lead the Islamic Republic. The report said Trump reacted with surprise and laughter when the information was presented to him.

The allegation arrived at a moment of deep uncertainty over who is truly in charge in Tehran. Mojtaba Khamenei was elevated to the country’s highest office only days earlier after the death of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in the opening phase of the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran. Reuters has reported that his selection was driven through by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which pushed aside objections from clerics and political insiders who were uneasy both about the appearance of hereditary succession and about the new leader’s hardline alliances.