Trump: Don't Know if Mojtaba Khamenei is Dead or Not

JAKARTA - US President Donald Trump admitted that he did not know the fate of the new Supreme Leader of Iran, Mojtaba Khamenei.

"We don't know ... whether he is dead or not," Trump said at a White House news conference on Tuesday, March 17 WIB, quoted by The Guardian.

Trump said that many news reached him that Khamenei was injured as a result of the US-Israeli attack on Iran.

"A lot of people say he's severely disabled. They say he lost one leg - and he, you know, was severely injured. Others say he's dead. No one says he's 100 percent healthy. You know he hasn't spoken," Trump continued.

He added that the US currently does not know with whom to negotiate with Iran.

"We don't know who we're dealing with" in Iran. We don't know who their leaders are," he continued.

Previously, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed that Khamenei was injured and possibly disabled as a result of the US-Israeli attack on Iran a few days ago.

Last Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told MS Now in an interview that Khamenei currently has no health problems.

Since taking over the leadership after his father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a US-Israeli attack on February 28, Khamenei issued a message to the public for the first time on Thursday, March 13, 2026.

At the time, he stressed the need for a sustained military resistance and maintaining Iran's influence in the Strait of Hormuz.