WASHINGTON — President Trump said Wednesday that he believes Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is alive but badly wounded from a February airstrike — dismissing speculation that he is secretly dead despite being unseen throughout the US-Israeli war with his country.
“I don’t think he’s dead. He was very seriously wounded. The left side of his body, the arm, the leg, the whole thing,” Trump told radio host Glenn Beck in an interview.
“He was very seriously wounded, but I don’t think he’s dead. And if he is, they’re putting on a pretty good show.”
Trump noted that Iranian peace negotiators “talk about, you know, going back to talk to him all the time, you know, to get a final blessing on things.”
He added that “it’s not the most honorable group, I will tell you that.”
“You know, we have the Strait [of Hormuz] open. We took out 22 boats last night. We have people coming in. The blockade, our navy has been unbelievable. Our military has been unbelievable,” he said.
Trump was responding to an article in The Atlantic, which cited an Iranian official saying, “I believe Mojtaba has either passed away or is brain-dead.”
Trump confirmed in March that he received a CIA briefing on intelligence that Khamenei may be gay, contending it “puts him off to a bad start in that particular country.”
Trump envoys have struggled to negotiate an end to the war, which the president initially projected would take four weeks.
A cease-fire in place since April 8 and a memorandum of understanding that he signed June 17 crumbled last month when Iran attacked commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
The Trump administration this week launched Operation Economic Outcast, aiming to sever Iran’s economic ties with countries such as China and Russia.
“We had the victory in Venezuela, and we’re going to have a big victory here very soon,” Trump told Beck.
