Following the large public funeral for Iran’s former Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a claim circulated on social media suggesting that former President Donald Trump had stated his own funeral would be larger. This claim emerged after Khamenei’s multi-day funeral procession, which began on July 4, drew significant crowds, as reported by various news outlets.
The assertion, which gained hundreds of thousands of views and comments across Facebook and Instagram, also attracted mockery and criticism. While many users seemed to accept the claim as fact, others questioned its authenticity, prompting an investigation.
A fact-check revealed the claim to be false. There are no credible news reports of Trump making such a statement. A search for the purported quote yielded no results from major news organizations, which would likely have covered such a remark extensively if it were true.
The origin of this rumor can be traced to Andy Borowitz, a satirist known for “The Borowitz Report,” which was a long-running feature in The New Yorker. Borowitz first shared the satirical statement on his Facebook account on July 3. He later published a more extended satirical piece on July 6 titled, “Trump Says His Funeral Will Draw Much Bigger Crowd Than Ayatollah’s.” The social media posts that amplified this rumor frequently used the same image of Trump from Borowitz’s initial post, further confirming its satirical source.
Separately, Donald Trump expressed surprise at the large turnout for Ayatollah Khamenei’s funeral. Speaking with Axios, Trump commented on the thousands of Iranians mourning Khamenei, whom he claimed was killed in a joint US-Israeli operation at the start of the conflict. “I thought people hated Khamenei. Maybe it’s fake tears,” Trump remarked after observing footage of the mourners. He also suggested that the gathering of Iran’s top leadership for the funeral presented an opportunity for Washington to eliminate them, but stated they would not do so to maintain negotiation partners. Iran responded to Trump’s comments on X, asserting that while individuals can be killed, ideals cannot, and that killing Ayatollah Khamenei had not diminished his influence.
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