At Khamenei’s funeral, Iranian poet says ‘world is no longer a good place’ for Trump

A performer at the funeral for Iran’s late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for the death of US President Donald Trump before a crowd of hundreds of thousands of people on Sunday in the capital, Tehran.

The comment represents the first, direct call for Trump’s death by an emcee at the funeral, which has seen posters and graffiti calling for the killing of Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. That has been a hardline demand even as Tehran negotiates with the US over a permanent end to the war that has disrupted global energy supplies.

Mohammad Rasouli, a poet, drew calls of “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”

Speaking to the crowd over loudspeakers at the funeral, Rasouli asked, referring to Trump: “Why is the most b*****d man in the world still alive?”

The question drew cheers from the crowd, and again when Rasouli said that “the world is no longer a good place for” Trump.

A far larger crowd for the funeral than the day before attended the ceremony on Sunday. Mourners dressed in black walked to the site, carrying banners and flags honouring Khamenei and also calling for Trump’s killing as the American president gave a speech in Washington for the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.

“We’ve had tremendous success,” Trump said, speaking of the American military. “You look at Venezuela, you look at Iran. We wiped it out, wiped out their military.”