Iran Unveils 'We Will Kill Trump' Billboard in Tehran on Midterm Election Day as Deal Talks and Strike Warnings Collide

Iran unveiled a huge billboard and banners over Enghelab Square in central Tehran on Tuesday, Nov. 3, reading "We will kill Trump" in English. The poster shows the president behind bars, head bowed.

A second billboard nearby shows Trump, Vice President JD Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with bloodied faces and ragged suits against torn U.S. and Israeli flags. Dozens of people gathered in the square waving red flags and carrying banners reading "There will be blood," calling for revenge for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the U.S.-Israeli strikes of Feb. 28 that started the war.

In Tajrish Square, an open-air exhibition features paintings of a bloodied Trump and a life-sized jail cell with an actor playing him. State-sponsored billboards have been a fixture of Iranian public life since 1979, and new anti-Trump designs have gone up regularly during the war.

Tehran claims credit for the midterms

The billboard went up on Election Day. By Wednesday, Iranian officials were crowing about the results.

Ehsan Movaheidian, an international relations scholar, said: "The Islamic Republic of Iran has succeeded in regime change in America." Meisam Zohurian, a conservative member of parliament, said Iran "had an impact on the result." Ali Nikzad, the parliament's first deputy speaker, called the losses "aftershocks of Trump's defeat by the Iranian people."

Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran's chief negotiator, posted on X: "Conscience or the cost of living, Americans said NO TO WAR, and we endorse this message." He warned that if Washington betrays "the public will," it will learn Iran's "no comes with a nightmare."

Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, in a written statement, said anyone hoping U.S. policy will change through partisan shifts or concessions is "seriously mistaken." He has not been seen or heard publicly since succeeding his father, and his communications have come only in writing.

The gloating is propaganda. The economic damage behind it is real.

What the war cost at home

Iran has kept the Strait of Hormuz disrupted for months, pushing up global oil and gas prices. Diesel and inflation pain reached American households. Voter discontent over the war was a factor going into Tuesday's vote, and Democrats made gains.

Trump acknowledged on Wednesday that voters decided the "short-term" pain of inflation was not a price worth paying to stop Iran from becoming a nuclear power. Vance has said the Iran war is "the reason we lost" the midterms.

The administration's case for the war has not changed. On Fox's "Hannity" Monday, Trump called Iran "the number one state sponsor of terror anywhere in the world" and said it was "the road to a nuclear weapon." He called the conflict "a very soft war" and said that if the Pickaxe nuclear site needs to be hit, "we can do that in one hour."

Strikes, threats and a stalled deal

On Monday, a U.S. official said American forces struck Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz. The island hosts an underground missile site, a naval base and a major desalination plant. The official called the strike "defensive," a response to Iran firing at a U.S. aircraft, and said it did not signal a return to full-scale strikes. Iranian state media reported five explosions on the island.

On Saturday, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi answered German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who had cited soaring European energy costs and urged diplomacy. "Red lines are a thing of the past," Araghchi wrote, promising an "Earth-shattering blow" if Iran is attacked. Armed forces chief Gen. Ali Abdollahi announced an expanded target list and said Iran would not necessarily wait for an enemy attack before responding.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Washington told Gulf governments to prepare for a possible "short, intense" campaign after the midterms, while U.S. forces added missile defenses and replenished munitions. Two senior Iranian sources told Reuters that Tehran is on high alert, concerned Trump could try to offset his electoral loss with military action.

Trump has declined to rule out resuming combat. He told Axios he is in "no rush": "One way or the other, we will do something, but there is no rush. We crippled them financially."

Neither side describes the diplomacy the same way. Vance told CNN the president and he "both feel really good about the prospect of potentially coming to a negotiated settlement." An anonymous Iranian official said a deal remains elusive, that Tehran's conditions must be met before Hormuz reopens, and that nuclear talks begin only after that. He called Washington's current demands "excessive."

Qatari mediators are waiting for feedback from both capitals as indirect talks continue.

The billboard is a threat on paper. The decisions that matter are in Washington and Tehran: whether Trump uses the opening Qatar is trying to hold, or acts on the Gulf warnings, and whether Tehran's conditions are met before Hormuz traffic normalizes. As of Wednesday, Nov. 4, no deal has been announced and no resumption of full-scale strikes has been ordered.