Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s funeral on Thursday attracted large crowds of mourners wishing death upon President Donald Trump, after he launched the war that killed the Islamist figure in February.
Funeral events reached their culmination this week, as mourners reached the country’s holiest shrine for Khamenei’s burial at the Shrine of Imam Reza in Mashhad. Footage of the proceedings showed massive crowds in funeral processions carrying giant scarlet banners reading “Kill Trump,” “Hey Trump, we will kill you,” and “There will be blood” on banners depicting Trump’s image. “We will kill Trump” banners also appeared on buildings in Mashhad, according to footage on social media.
Attendees also led chants of “Death to America.”
The development comes as U.S. officials have long warned that Trump is a top target of Iran.
Earlier this week, the president was rumored to have switched up presidential aircraft as a security precaution against Iranian bad actors.
“I’m No. 1 on the kill list for Iran,” he said during a press conference when asked whether the change was caused by threats. “They’re lovely people.”
Khamenei, 86, was killed on Feb. 28, bringing an end to his tenure that lasted more than three decades. As the country’s supreme leader, Khamenei led a theocratic Islamist government that has heavily restricted religious, sexual, and political expression, and has instituted severe restrictions on women. The country backs terrorism across the world, including Hamas’s operations against Israel in Gaza.
The United States and Israel launched strikes against Iran in February, resulting in Khamenei’s death, after Washington, Jerusalem, and other democracies had long expressed concerns about the country’s nuclear program and support for terrorism internationally.
“This is not only Justice for the people of Iran, but for all Great Americans, and those people from many Countries throughout the World, that have been killed or mutilated by Khamenei and his gang of bloodthirsty THUGS,” Trump said in a post to Truth Social announcing the Iranian leader’s death. “This is the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their Country.”
In the U.S., Iran has repeatedly been accused of planning operations to assassinate Trump, particularly since he ordered the killing of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Gen. Qassem Soleimani during his first term.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in June 2025 that intelligence showed Iran was also behind both attempts on Trump’s life in 2024. The president’s narrow escape from a sniper’s gunfire at a Butler, Pennsylvania, rally and another assassination attempt at his golf course both originated from Iran, the Israeli prime minister said.
Netanyahu said Iran viewed Trump as “enemy No. 1” due in part to his role in pulling the U.S. out of the Obama-era nuclear agreement with Iran, which was heavily criticized by U.S. Middle Eastern allies, including Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Iranian threats against the president increased during 2024 as he campaigned for a second term. In July of that year, government authorities reported intelligence that Iran was plotting to assassinate Trump, a development that led to enhanced Secret Service protection for the then-GOP presidential candidate. The U.S. announced in March that it had killed the Iranian leader behind that plot, with War Secretary Pete Hegseth saying, “Trump got the last laugh.”
In September 2024, weeks after the Trump campaign said it had been hacked by Iran, with a dossier on Vice President JD Vance being leaked to outlets, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) released FBI documents that implicated Iran in another plot to assassinate Trump. The Iowa Republican said that then-President Joe Biden and others were also targeted by a Pakistani man, who said he discussed assassination strategies on American political figures with an Iranian handler.
TRUMP ANNOUNCES ‘MASSIVE AND ONGOING OPERATION’ AGAINST IRAN
Hours after Trump won a second term, a social media account associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps posted a video threatening to assassinate the incoming president, showing images of Trump in a sniper’s crosshairs and spitting up blood.
The following day, the Justice Department announced it had charged three people in connection with an alleged plot that originated in Iran to kill Trump before the 2024 election.