Iran, on Tuesday, unveiled a billboard declaring “We will kill Trump” in central Tehran, escalating public threats against the US President as diplomats sought to prevent renewed fighting.
The display above Enghelab Square depicted Donald Trump behind bars with his head bowed. Banners carrying threats against him also appeared across the Iranian capital.
The installation marked an escalation in the anti-Trump displays erected since the war began on February 28, when US-Israeli strikes killed Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
It came as Trump faced crucial US midterm elections, with voter dissatisfaction driven partly by the war and its economic consequences.
Despite the increasingly hostile rhetoric, renewed diplomatic efforts have sought to bring Tehran and Washington back to negotiations. Trump has said a deal “could happen”.
In Tajrish Square in northern Tehran, an open-air exhibition also featured paintings mocking the US President and portraying violent imagery directed at him.
One showed Trump with his bloodied face against the ground and a foot pressing on his head. Another obscured his face with a bomb, apparently referencing Belgian artist René Magritte’s 1964 painting, “The Son of Man”.
A life-sized replica of a jail cell stood nearby, with an actor impersonating Trump spending the day inside. An adjacent screen displayed images of damage caused by US strikes on Iran.
Tehran has accused Trump of deliberately targeting civilian sites, including a school and a wedding ceremony, and killing dozens of people, among them women and children.
State-sponsored billboards and murals have been a feature of Iranian public spaces since the 1979 Islamic revolution, serving as vehicles for political messages, military tributes and attacks on adversaries, particularly the United States and Israel.