“We will kill Trump”: Iran posts giant billboard threatening US president

A giant billboard was unveiled in the Iranian capital on Tuesday, with a death threat against US President Donald Trump. Tehran has crossed a new threshold in its speech against the United States even as the two countries say they want to start serious discussions to prevent the conflict from continuing to fester.

“We will kill Trump” can be read on this huge poster overlooking Place Enghelab or Place de la Revolution in French, a very busy place where cars and passers-by gather daily. We see the President of the United States locked behind bars to which he clings with his head down. The panel was unveiled on the day of the US mid-term elections, where Donald Trump must know whether or not his government will keep the majority in the US Congress.

About a hundred meters from this panel, another poster once again depicts President Trump, this time accompanied by his special envoy Steve Witkoff, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his vice-president JD Vance. The four men have bloody faces, their clothes are dirty and they are staring at the ground. Behind them, the flags of the United States and Israel lie in tatters.

“There will be blood”

In this square, dozens of people with red flags and banners gathered in front of these posters in the morning. Their signs read slogans such as “There will be blood” and “Kill Trump”. They called for the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, killed by the American-Israeli strikes on February 28 on Tehran, to be avenged. These strikes sparked war in the Middle East and Donald Trump has been mocked numerous times since with similar posters, performances and exhibitions.

On Tajrish Square, north of Tehran, an open-air exhibition, for example, served to reveal paintings in the same style where we could see the President of the United States crushed under one foot on the ground, his face swollen. Other paintings also showed him with a bomb acting as his head in reference to the 1964 painting by Belgian surrealist René Magritte, The Son of Man. Near that plaza, a mock prison cell housing an actor playing President Trump all day remained on display.

An integral part of Iranian public space

The Iranian government accuses the US president of deliberately targeting civilian sites during the war, including a school and a wedding ceremony. These bombings killed dozens of people, including women and children.

This type of display is financed by the state and has constituted an integral part of Iranian public space since the Islamic revolution of 1979. Its objective can be to celebrate military figures, to pay tribute to the regime's allies, or to send political messages to its adversaries and enemies, the most important of which are the United States and Israel.