The death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, long-serving Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran and implacable foe of the United States, has not diminished the regimes appetite for threatening American leaders.
His funeral in Tehran drew massive crowds and a carefully choreographed display of regime loyalty, yet the spectacle also revealed something darker, as reported by RedState: open incitement against prominent Americans, including a president. At the ceremony, some of Khameneis most fervent supporters brandished posters depicting a target hit list featuring President Donald Trump and conservative commentator Laura Loomer, a chilling reminder that the regime and its backers are not shy about broadcasting their intentions. Khamenei supporters held up photos with a target hit list at his funeral including of President Trump and Laura Loomer, one X user observed, adding, @DHSgov needs to make sure none of these people are ever allowed into our country.
Other reports indicated that similar posters appeared elsewhere during the funeral events, this time featuring Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, further expanding the roster of Americans singled out by regime loyalists. These images were not the work of fringe outliers but were carried openly in a tightly controlled authoritarian environment where public messaging is rarely accidental.
The threats are not occurring in a vacuum. Last week, the remnants of the Iranian regime were reported to be openly discussing the assassination of American leaders, a development that should alarm any serious policymaker. At that time, the author of the earlier analysis noted, Remember, we have seen three assassination attempts against President Trump: Two during the campaign and one during his second term. These were attempts by amateurs, and yet one of them almost succeeded; the president escaped a fatal shot by a literal hair's breadth.
That history underscores the danger of dismissing Tehrans rhetoric as mere bluster. Any such attempt by a nation-state, with the resources of even a failed nation-state like Iran, would be very different; the attempt would be made by trained people, well-equipped, well-prepared, almost certainly working in a team of 2-3, possibly - likely - with more than one shooter. Iran has people like that, just as we do, just as any nation-state would. The implication is clear: a hostile government with intelligence assets, funding, and operational experience poses a far more serious threat than lone-wolf extremists.
Compounding that concern is the state of Americas own borders. There are, right now, between 20,000 and 30,000 Iranian nationals in the country illegally, having entered, mostly, across the southern border and again, mostly, during the four years of the Biden administration's non-enforcement of the border, the earlier report warned. If one percent of those are some kind of operative, infiltrated into the United States while the border was wide open, then that makes up 200-300 possible hostile operators.
From a national security standpoint, those numbers are not trivial, especially when combined with an administration that has treated border enforcement as an afterthought. It becomes easy to see these people as clownish and ineffectual, but this is a serious matter, particularly when the regime they serve has a long record of sponsoring terrorism and targeting dissidents and Western interests abroad.
The domestic vulnerability is not limited to unknown illegal entrants. There are too many Iranians already present in the United States, legally and (more concerning) illegally, the analysis stressed, pointing to the lack of effective tracking and vetting. Thanks to four years of non-enforcement by the Biden administration, we now have little idea where many of these people are right now, what they might be doing, or what they may intend.
Against that backdrop, the call for vigilance from conservative voices is hardly alarmist. The X account Libs of TikTok, cited in the original piece, is described as absolutely correct that the Department of Homeland Security (and, presumably, the CIA) should be working right now to identify these goblins and make sure they never come within a hundred miles of American territory. It's a safe bet Israel is already making such efforts. That contrastbetween Israels reputation for aggressive counterterrorism and Washingtons lax border posturehighlights a broader failure of political will.
Yes, some of the individuals waving these posters may indeed be clownish and ineffectual, intoxicated by propaganda and eager for attention. But behind them are people who are capable and serious, and we underestimate them at our peril, especially when the regimes ideology explicitly glorifies martyrdom and violence against the West.
The images from Khameneis funeral are therefore more than a grotesque sideshow; they are a warning that a hostile regime and its sympathizers are willing to name American targets in public, while the United States remains saddled with porous borders and an administration reluctant to confront the full scope of the threat. None of these people should ever be allowed anywhere near any modern nation, and that principle ought to begin with a federal government finally serious about defending its own.
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