Giant billboards showing US President Donald Trump lying in an open coffin, and others depicting his family above flag-draped caskets, have been erected on Tehran’s main thoroughfares and building facades. The displays, carrying slogans such as “We Kill Trump” and “Blood for Blood” in English and Persian, follow a written vow of revenge by the new Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who declared that retribution for his father’s killing would proceed “regardless of Iran’s fate”. The imagery, produced by an organisation linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, marks an escalation in state-backed messaging after the collapse of a fragile ceasefire with Washington.

The public threats coincide with an intensifying rift at the apex of the Islamic Republic. During the funeral of former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei — killed in a joint US-Israeli strike in late February — hardline mourners heckled President Masoud Pezeshkian with chants of “death to the conciliator”, while Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, a key negotiator of the now-defunct truce, was pelted with stones and forced to flee. Radical parliamentarian Mahmoud Nabavian publicly asked whether a “coup is on the way”, and ultraconservative voices accuse Pezeshkian, Araghchi and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf of exploiting the prolonged absence of Mojtaba Khamenei — who has not appeared in public or addressed the nation — to consolidate power, suspend parliament and defy the Supreme Leader’s orders. Nabavian was subsequently removed from the parliamentary national security committee.

Viewed from Tehran’s pragmatic camp, the ceasefire and sanctions relief were necessary to stabilise a country battered by war. But for the hardline paydari faction, the deal amounts to a betrayal of revolutionary ideals and a surrender to Washington. Their anger has been fuelled by the new Supreme Leader’s invisibility, which they claim has allowed the negotiators to govern unchecked. Analysts in the region note that the billboards serve a dual purpose: they project an image of defiance abroad while signalling to domestic audiences that the radical wing remains the guardian of the regime’s founding principles, even as it accuses the visible leadership of a “slow coup”.

The internal struggle is unfolding against a backdrop of renewed military friction. The ceasefire unravelled after IRGC attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, prompting US Central Command to strike Iranian command centres, air defences and coastal surveillance sites near Bandar Abbas and Greater Tunb Island. An Iran-backed militia umbrella group has offered a $10 million reward for Trump’s killing, while the US president has warned that any attempt on his life would trigger a “severe and destructive” response. With the Supreme Leader absent and the hardliners mobilising street support, the contest for control of the post-war order remains unresolved, leaving the Islamic Republic’s political trajectory and the regional security landscape deeply uncertain.