Iranians Chant “Kill Trump” As Nation Buries Assassinated Supreme Leader Khamenei

Crowds at the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla in Tehran carried signs reading “Kill Trump” and chanted “Death to America, Death to Israel” as Khamenei’s flag-draped coffin, along with those of four relatives killed in the same strike, was brought out for public viewing.

In a ritual mourners described as “stoning the devil,” participants hurled pebbles at an image of the American president, according to footage released by Iran’s state-affiliated Mizan news agency.

The anger crystallised most sharply during a eulogy by poet Mohammad Rasouli, who used his address to call for the deaths of both Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Addressing Khamenei’s body directly, Rasouli declared it a disgrace if Iran failed to kill “your killer,” prompting the crowd to erupt into chants of “Revenge, revenge” and vows of “no compromise, no surrender.”

Individual mourners echoed the same theme. Thirty-year-old Zahra Valaei told Reuters her generation would “take revenge for the blood of our leader,” while 40-year-old Arash Rahimi framed the killing as part of a lasting “blood feud” between Iran and the United States.

Not all reactions were purely nationalistic, some, particularly younger Iranians who lived through the deadly crackdown on anti-government protests in late 2025, described more complicated grief, saying Khamenei’s death brought them little comfort given the repression they associate with his rule.

Related: Trump Threatens The Existence Of Iran Amidst Fragile Ceasefire

The funeral unfolded against a backdrop of fragile diplomacy. Iran and the United States have been holding indirect talks in Doha, Qatar, aimed at consolidating a ceasefire that reopened the Strait of Hormuz to shipping after months of disruption during the brief but intense US-Israel war on Iran.

Iranian parliament speaker and top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf acknowledged that implementing the truce remains difficult but achievable, even as Tehran warned the US and Israel against any strike timed to the funeral itself and briefly sealed off Tehran’s airspace as a precaution.

Notably absent from the week’s proceedings was Khamenei’s son and successor, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not appeared publicly since ascending to the role of Supreme Leader.

Iranian media reported he skipped even his own wife’s funeral. US officials have said he was severely wounded, and possibly disfigured, in the February strike that killed his father, mother and wife, with some reports suggesting he lost a leg.

Analysts say his continued absence reflects both security concerns and a desire to avoid projecting vulnerability at a moment when the Islamic Republic is trying to signal resilience.

More than 100 countries sent representatives to the funeral, underscoring Tehran’s continued diplomatic reach despite the war.

Russia sent former president Dmitry Medvedev, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif attended in person, and delegations arrived from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Hamas, among others.

Processions also moved through the Iraqi holy cities of Najaf and Karbala before Khamenei’s body returned to Iran for burial at the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, his birthplace, on July 9.

The scenes from Tehran leave little doubt that even as Iranian and American negotiators edge toward a durable ceasefire, the emotional wound left by Khamenei’s killing and the open calls for Trump’s death voiced at the highest levels of Iran’s funeral rites will continue to shadow any path toward normalized relations between the two countries.