President Trump told reporters at the White House on July 6, 2026, as funeral ceremonies for Iran Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei were underway across Iran, that he “thinks the third regime [in Iran] is more reasonable” than its two predecessors, adding “but we’ll find out.”[1] At the same time, however, the Iranian regime was ramping up its calls for his assassination to avenge Khamenei.
Assassinating Trump has been one of the regime’s declared goals since the U.S.’s January 2020 killing of IRGC Qods Force commander Qassem Soleimani (see, for example, ‘Kayhan’ Editor Shariatmadari To Trump: The IRGC Will Take Revenge Against You Personally For Your Involvement In Killing Of Qods Force Commander Soleimani, October 8, 2020; Iranian Religious Establishment Declares Jihad Against President Trump, July 9. 2025). However, since Khamenei’s killing in February 2026, these calls have increased, peaking during Khamenei’s funeral this past week and becoming a regime imperative (see, for example, Iranian Officials: €50 Million Reward For Assassinating President Trump For His Killing Of Supreme Leader Khamenei, May 20, 2026; Former Iranian FM Manouchehr Mottaki Calls To Kill Trump To Avenge Ali Khamenei: The Iranian People Have The Right To Kill Trump And Netanyahu; I Am Setting This Into Motion, June 21, 2026).
These exhortations, coming from the top echelons of Iran’s political, military, and religious leadership, are conveyed by Iranian media to all sectors of society. They reflect a broad religious-regime consensus that is regularly underlined with an emphasis on the ultimate reward for anyone who carries it out – Paradise and the status of defender of Islam.
Following the killing of Supreme Leader Khamenei in February 2026, that demand grew louder and more brazen, and as noted reached a peak during Khamenei’s funeral ceremonies, which began July 4 – and regarding which President Trump said that the U.S. had given Iran “a week off.”[2] Senior regime officials reiterated their calls for assassinating Trump, including in declarations from the stage at events, focus on it by state print and broadcast media and social media accounts, the publication of a poem calling for it by the regime’s main mouthpiece and its recitation by the regime’s official poet during the funeral ceremonies in Tehran, crowds chanting for it, and displays of hanging Trump in effigy and pelting a banner with his portrait with bottles and rocks during the funeral ceremonies that were seen across the country.
It is notable that the regime has been making an effort to connect the fight against President Trump and the U.S. with the Shi’ite foundational ethos of blood vengeance for the death of Imam Hussein at the 680 CE Battle of Karbala, in which the Islamic rule was wrested from the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Hussein ibn Ali by the Sunni leader Yazid ibn Muawiya and also to the appearance of the Mahdi, the “Hidden Imam,” the Shi’ite Messiah. All this is tied together in the demand for vengeance for Khamenei. Thus, Khamenei is being cast as the “martyr imam” as the latest link in the chain of Shi’ite martyrdom – that is, his death is not a mere political event but a modern chapter in the Shi’ite pursuit of religious truth and justice. Furthermore, the declarations by the Iranian regime mouthpieces that “it is up to us to assassinate Trump” elevate this demand into the realm of a sacred religious duty, conflating the raising the red banner of vengeance of Karbala (see images below) with blood vengeance for Khamenei and the anticipation of apocalyptic redemption and final vengeance by the Hidden Imam.
The following are examples of the statements and displays across Iran during the week-long funeral ceremonies for Khamenei and in its aftermath calling for assassinating President Trump:
IRGC-Affiliated Tasnim News Agency: “Iranian People: ‘Our Word Is One! Revenge! Revenge!'”
On July 12, 2026, the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim news agency published a poster featuring a blood-red image of President Trump with a bullet entering his left eye and text in English reading: “Iranian people: ‘Our word is one! Revenge! Revenge!'”[3]
T.me/Tasnimnews/431520, July 12, 2026
Read the full report here.
