Iran Picked July 4 to Bury Khamenei — and the Mourners Are Screaming “Revenge”

The dayslong funeral of Iran’s slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei began Saturday, July 4 — the same day the United States marks its 250th anniversary. Ceremonies opened at the Imam Khomeini Mosalla in Tehran, where crowds beat their chests and chanted “revenge, revenge” as Khamenei’s flag-draped casket was placed on public display. Organizers said millions were expected to fill the streets in scenes deliberately compared to the 1989 funeral of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini [1]. The multi-day schedule runs from Tehran on July 4–5 through processions in Qom, Najaf, and Karbala before a final burial at the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad on July 9 [2].

Khamenei, 85, was killed on February 28, 2026, when a joint U.S.-Israeli airstrike hit a leadership compound in Tehran as part of Operation Epic Fury — authorized by President Trump after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu provided intelligence on Khamenei’s location. The strikes also killed the IRGC commander, Iran’s defense minister, and several other senior officials. Iranian state media and local prosecutors reported that one strike hit a girls’ primary school in southern Iran, killing at least 85 children; the Iranian Red Crescent said more than 200 people were killed across the country in the broader operation [4]. Iran designated Mojtaba Khamenei — the late supreme leader’s son — as his replacement on March 8, 2026 [3].

Why It Sucks:

Conservatives

• Iran weaponized America’s birthday against it. Iranian officials deliberately scheduled the funeral to open on July 4, ensuring that global coverage of the U.S. 250th anniversary would compete with images of millions chanting “death to America” — a propaganda coup handed to Tehran by the war’s unresolved aftermath [1, 2].
• Negotiations are stalled while the regime entrenches. The CBS News live updates tracking the funeral also note that Trump’s negotiations with the new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei are on pause — meaning Operation Epic Fury removed the old regime but allowed the theocracy to regenerate, and the U.S. now faces the same hardline adversary wearing a different name [2].
• “Revenge” chants prove the problem hasn’t been solved. Conservatives who supported eliminating Khamenei argued it was necessary because diplomatic paths were exhausted. The mass funeral, with its calls for revenge, now becomes a rallying event for every militia and proxy force Iran sponsors across the region [1, 3].

Progressives

• The war started with 85 dead schoolchildren. The most documented single consequence of Operation Epic Fury is an airstrike that killed at least 85 girls at a primary school in southern Iran, according to local prosecutors cited by NPR and the Washington Post — a fact the July 4 funeral puts back on the front page [4].
• Congress never authorized this war. The Trump administration launched a joint operation that killed a foreign head of state, triggered a war that has now lasted more than four months, and has never presented a Congressional authorization for the use of military force or a clear exit strategy [2, 3].
• The funeral proves the “decapitation strategy” failed. The theory behind killing Khamenei was that it would create an opening for a new Iranian government to negotiate. Instead, Iran installed Mojtaba Khamenei — his own son — and the theocracy reconstituted itself dynastically. The “revenge” crowds in the streets are the strategy’s report card [1, 4].

Iranian Civilians

• Many Iranians hated Khamenei — now they must mourn him publicly. Human rights organizations documented Khamenei as the authorizing force behind the 2019 crackdown that killed hundreds of Iranian protesters in the streets. The state funeral demands a performance of national grief from citizens whose own family members were killed by the regime he led [2].
• The new supreme leader is literally Khamenei’s son. The appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei on March 8 means the Islamic Republic responded to a foreign-imposed leadership crisis by installing a dynasty — the very form of power consolidation that Iranian reform movements have spent decades fighting [3, 4].
• Ordinary Iranians are absorbing the costs of a war they didn’t start. The 200-plus civilians killed in the February strikes, the ongoing economic devastation, and a war with the world’s most powerful military were imposed on a civilian population that had no vote in Khamenei’s policies or in Netanyahu’s intelligence briefings to Trump [4].

Sources & Citations:

[1] NPR: Iran begins dayslong funeral for the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
[2] CBS News: U.S.-Iran Latest: Mourners chant for revenge as Iran begins dayslong funeral of slain supreme leader
[3] ABC News: Iran begins dayslong funeral for the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
[4] The Washington Post: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei killed in US-Israeli attack