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‘Really poking the bear’: Tehran unveils ‘vile’ banner of Trump family as US ramps up airstrikes

July 18, 2026 | | Print Article

Iran appears to be “really poking the bear now” as billboards cropped up around Tehran featuring President Donald Trump and his family members in “some sick death fantasy.”

Since formally notifying Congress that the U.S. was actively at war with Iran, strikes have continued against the Islamist regime, targeting its military capabilities as well as critical infrastructure to support the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Having provoked retaliation for violating the memorandum of understanding, Iran also appeared determined to provoke the president with “straight-up vile” prominent displays in the public square in Tehran featuring him in an open coffin as well as portraits of the commander-in-chief and his family resting atop flag-draped coffins.

“Putting kids and spouses in coffins on a public wall? That’s not politics. That’s pure, rotting hatred dressed up as ‘resistance,'” said writer Adi on X as she described the image with the first family as “straight-up vile” and “some sick death fantasy.”

The included message with the image was said to translate to, “Blood for blood.”

Regarding the image of Trump in a coffin, graffitied in Persian and English with phrases like, “Kill Trump” and “We Kill,” near a statue depicting the eliminated Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s raised fist, Mario Nawfal suggested, “Iran is really poking the bear now … Hardliners have been calling for revenge in the days since Khamenei’s funeral, and the U.S.-Iran situation has only gotten worse since then.”

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While attending the NATO summit in Turkey, the president remarked, “I’m number one on the kill list for Iran. I’m their number one target because they’re scum.”

He also told the New York Post, “I’ve been on their list for a long time. That’s what we’re dealing with … The only thing is, I’ve left instructions — if anything happens, to justify literally bomb them at levels that they’ve never seen before.”

Major General Mohsen Rezaei, military adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, said on Iranian television this week that, “Iran will no longer limit itself to retaliatory, like-for-like responses” and instead will enter a phase of “full-scale offensive operations” that recognize “no political boundaries.”

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Friday, U.S. Central Command detailed that, for a seventh consecutive night, the latest wave of strikes against Iran “hit surveillance sites, military logistics infrastructure, underground weapons storage, and maritime capabilities. U.S. forces employed fighter aircraft, aerial drones, and warships in addition to other assets.”

These strikes followed reports that the military also bombed roads, bridges and more around Bandar Abbas to cut off supply lines for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

During his address from the White House, President Donald Trump said Thursday, “We are likewise winning big in Iran, and you will see the fruits of that labor very, very shortly.”

Following a message that stated “Iran does not control the [Strait of Hormuz],” War Secretary Pete Hegseth furthered his point by posting an image of the destruction of a surveillance tower in the Gulf of Oman coastal city of Chahabar

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Kevin Haggerty
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