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President Donald Trump has weighed in on months of speculation about Iran’s supreme leader, saying he does not believe the man is dead despite not being seen in public since taking the job.
Some shit you should know before you dig in: Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, became supreme leader after US and Israeli strikes killed his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Feb. 28 in an opening round that wiped out a large chunk of the people running Iran. The Assembly of Experts, a body of 88 clerics, announced his selection March 8, elevating a cleric who never ranked especially high but had real reach into the security apparatus and the money side of the country. He has not appeared publicly since the war kicked off. No new photos, no video, no audio. He skipped his own father’s funeral and every message out of him comes on paper. That, coupled with the way senior Revolutionary Guards names have moved up around him, has fed speculation that he is either dead or not actually running anything.
What’s going on now: During an interview on Glenn Beck’s radio program Wednesday, Trump was asked about an Atlantic report that Tehran is full of rumors about Khamenei’s death, including an Iranian official quoted saying he believes Khamenei has either died or is brain-dead.
“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. He was very seriously wounded, but I don’t think he’s dead,” Trump said. “And if he is, they’re putting on a pretty good show.”
He pointed to Iranian negotiators as his evidence. “They talk about going back to talk to him all the time to get a final blessing on things,” Trump said, before adding, “it’s not the most honorable group, I will tell you that.”
Despite all of this, Iran has been trying to push back on the rumors with old footage of Mojtaba and AI-generated videos. Iran’s Fars News put out archival footage Tuesday that predates his time as supreme leader, with a group around him saying prayers before they sit down to talk. Then there was the Mehr News clip earlier this month. Israeli outlets had just claimed he was in critical condition and had been rushed to a hospital, and the semi-official agency answered with a video carrying no date on it at all, showing a man who looked fine.
President Masoud Pezeshkian has insisted Khamenei is “completely healthy,” saying, “Someone who can sit and discuss for seven to eight hours cannot have any health problems,” and describing a good meeting with him earlier this month.
