Do the protesters angry about Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s death hate America — or do they hate the fact that Donald Trump pulled it off?
The question sounds simple. Nobody outside Khamenei’s supporters can mourn his death. The answer becomes more difficult because the protesters in question rarely limit their hatred to one target.
Trump’s return tore off the mask. When America acts like America again, the people who resent America stop hiding behind the language of peace.
Almost 15 years ago, U.S. Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. Bin Laden led Al-Qaeda, which carried out terrorist attacks against the United States and others for years. The worst came on Sept. 11, 2001, when Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four American airliners, flew three into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, and crashed the fourth in Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 people died.
When President Obama announced bin Laden’s death, he said: “Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader; he was a mass murderer of Muslims. Indeed, Al-Qaeda has slaughtered scores of Muslims in many countries, including our own. So his demise should be welcomed by all who believe in peace and human dignity.”
Nobody marched in grief for bin Laden — at least not publicly outside Al-Qaeda’s circles, which included Iran.
Khamenei’s record goes further. Under his rule, Iran financed terrorism across the region and around the globe. The U.S. State Department reported in 2020 that Iran “has been the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism,” and for more than 40 years, its “malign behavior and support for terrorist proxies has spread across the region.”
Iran’s clients form a who’s-who of the heinous: Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Shiite militias in Iraq, and others. For nearly half a century, Iran’s regime threatened Iranians first, then the Middle East, then the United States and Israel.
The beneficiaries of that system were predictable: regime insiders, terrorist networks, and pariah states that profit from chaos — Russia, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela — along with China, which seeks advantage from the disorder Iran helped sow.
So who, exactly, shows up in America to lament Khamenei’s death and denounce U.S. strikes as illegitimate?
The protests arrived quickly in familiar cities: New York, Minneapolis, Portland.
The left-wing Guardian observed that New York’s rally was sponsored by a host of left-wing groups that included the ANSWER Coalition, National Iranian American Council, 50501, American Muslims for Palestine, the People’s Forum, Palestinian Youth Movement, Code Pink, Black Alliance for Peace, and Democratic Socialists of America. Organizers called Trump’s strikes “unprovoked” and “illegal,” warned of “unthinkable death and destruction,” and promised to take to the streets.
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Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images
They did not explain how action against a regime that has sponsored terrorism for decades and chants “Death to America” qualifies as “unprovoked.”
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) went further, calling the strikes a “catastrophic escalation in an illegal war of aggression,” then added: “Bombing cities. Killing civilians. Opening a new theater of war.”
He ignored the war Iran has waged for years through its proxies. He also ignored the brutality Iran’s regime has inflicted on its own people. Reports from within and outside Iran have described mass crackdowns, large death tolls, and systematic violence against dissent. The precise numbers vary — it could top 30,000 — and the regime itself manipulates information, but nobody disputes the core point: Tehran kills its own citizens to preserve power.
Minneapolis offered the same posture. Minnesota Public Radio quoted Andrew Josefchak of the Minnesota Anti-War Committee saying: “These wars don’t benefit ordinary people in the U.S., and they certainly don’t benefit ordinary people in countries like Venezuela or Iran.” That claim dodges the obvious. Iranians have risked their lives for decades against this regime. Many celebrated Khamenei’s death because they know what his rule meant.
In Portland, a protest organized by Portland for Palestine featured signs reading “U.S. hands off Iran” and “Stop the war on Iran now.” Hamas, Iran’s most prominent Palestinian client, tells you plenty about the moral framing at work.
The sympathies here are not hard to locate. The protesters show little concern for the victims of Iran’s terror machine, whether in Israel, Iraq, or inside Iran itself. Their energy targets the United States — and Trump.
If that judgment sounds harsh, consider a post from a Columbia University group that has organized activism since 2024. Columbia University Apartheid Divest posted “Marg bar Amrika” on X.com — “Death to America” in Persian — then later wrote that the platform forced deletion to regain account access but that “the sentiment still stands.”
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That brings the question into focus.
Iran chanted “Death to America” long before Trump entered politics. The chant softened in elite American spaces when Washington adopted a posture of accommodation. Under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the United States projected restraint even as Iran financed proxies and pushed its nuclear program forward. Now with Trump back in office and Khamenei dead, “Death to America” appears on social media feeds tied to elite American campuses.
So what do these protesters hate more: America or Trump?
They carry plenty of hate for both. The better answer may be that Trump’s return tore off the mask. When America acts like America again, the people who resent America stop hiding behind the phony language of peace.
Opinion & analysis, Iran war, Donald trump, Death to america, Ayatollah ali khamenei, Osama bin laden, Al qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, Protest, Subversion, Islam, Houthis, Jihad, Answer coalition, Leftism, Leftists, Zohran mamdani, Columbia university
