Iranians mourning slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei turned repeated moments of his week-long funeral into displays of rage against President Donald Trump, hanging his effigy in Tehran and, according to Iranian state media, preparing a symbolic public execution and burning of a Trump-like effigy in Mashhad's Ahmadabad Square as the funeral reached its final day.
Khamenei, who was killed at 86 in the February 28 airstrike that opened the war between Iran and the United States and Israel, was buried Thursday evening at the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, his birthplace, following processions that had passed through Tehran, Qom, and the Iraqi holy cities of Najaf and Karbala over the preceding week. Four family members killed alongside him, including his young granddaughter, were buried with him.
Anger toward Trump ran through nearly every stage of the mourning. During the Tehran procession on July 6, a Reuters photograph captured an effigy of Trump hanging above the crowd as mourners threw stones at his image and chanted "death to America" and "death to Israel." A banner reading "We Will Kill Trump" was hung from a Mashhad hotel building ahead of Thursday's final procession, and the same message reappeared on placards and signs along Imam Reza Street as Khamenei's coffin made its way to the shrine. Women in the crowd held signs reading "Kill Trump," while others chanted, "I swear by the blood of the Supreme Leader, Trump, we will kill you."
Iranian state media reported that Mashhad's Ahmadabad Square would host a staged public execution and burning of a Trump-like effigy, with footage showing the effigy mounted on a truck ahead of the event. The ceremony fit a pattern seen throughout the week, in which Iran's clerical leadership used the funeral to project strength and channel public grief into calls for retaliation against the United States and Israel.
