Iran this week unveiled a huge billboard and banners over Enqelab Square in central Tehran, with the billboard pledging in English: “We will kill Trump.”
The poster depicts the US president behind bars with his head bowed. The message elevates the degree of personal animus with which Donald Trump is viewed in official Iranian circles.
In a sense, given the US midterm election results on Tuesday, Iran has indeed killed Trump — or at least the second term of his presidency. Trump’s reverse is all the more piquant because it comes on the day Iran’s leadership celebrates the anniversary of the seizure of the US embassy in Tehran in 1979, an event that ensnared Jimmy Carter.
Triumphalism in Tehran
The election results have led to a good degree of triumphalism inside Iran.
Ehsan Movaheidian, an international relations scholar, claimed: “The Islamic Republic of Iran has succeeded in regime change in America. The same will soon happen in Europe as well. Bow down before the power of Iran.”
Meisam Zohurian, a conservative member of parliament, said: “The joy over the outcome of the US elections has nothing to do with the arrival of this party or the departure of that party. The issue is the aggressor was smeared in the dirt and Iran had an impact on the result.”
Ali Nikzad, the first deputy speaker of the parliament, said: “These electoral defeats are the aftershocks of Trump’s defeat by the Iranian people.”
Khamenei’s Warning
Iran’s supreme leader said anyone expecting a shift in US policy was “seriously mistaken.”
“Those who still harbour even the slightest hope that the behaviour of the hegemonic system might change through partisan or factional shifts, or who imagine that making concessions to the United States can dissuade it from hostility towards the Iranian nation, are seriously mistaken,” Mojtaba Khamenei wrote.
The Pressure to Strike
The Trump influencers who advocated for the war are piling on pressure to strike again quickly. Laura Loomer wrote on X: “Time for President Trump to deal with Iran once and for all. Just do it. Nothing to lose now. Finish the job.”
But the credibility of Loomer and her like has been severely damaged. In February, she advised Trump that regime change in Iran — “a little excursion” — could be as easy as knocking over the Maduro regime in Venezuela.
Hillary Clinton, Trump’s old sparring partner, thinks Trump will probably launch the long-delayed attack. “I think he will feel trapped. He will feel angry and resentful and he will react aggressively,” she said.
The Diplomatic Window
Trump has greater latitude in the two months before the new Congress convenes in January, reducing his budgetary options. The damage to the Republican party has been done and cannot be undone.
Iran’s chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, called on Trump to accept the wisdom of the American people. “Whether driven by conscience or the cost of living, America said no to war and we endorse this message,” he posted on X. “If the US government betrays the public will in order to serve international paymasters and blackmailers, it will learn our ‘no’ comes with a nightmare.”
Gulf monarchies, Russia, and China may also press Iran to reflect on the wisdom of war. A Chinese special envoy is travelling to Oman, Iran, and Saudi Arabia almost immediately, possibly testing a deal in which Iran dilutes its stockpile of highly enriched uranium under international supervision.
The Bottom Line
Iran has unveiled a “We will kill Trump” banner after the US midterm elections, celebrating Republican losses as a victory over the American president. Tehran claims the results show Americans rejected the war. Trump now faces pressure from allies to resume bombing and a narrow window before the new Congress convenes. The question is whether either side will use this moment to review its diplomatic strategy.
