The MeidasTouch Podcast - Trump Haunted by Ayatollah's Funeral

Episode Date: July 5, 2026

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Donald Trump being haunted by the massive size and scope of the Ayatollah’s funeral. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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for the late Ayatollah Khomeini, tens of millions of Iranians showed up at this funeral procession. The stadium in Tehran was packed and they kept on cycling in new groups of hundreds of thousands of people. And as I looked at just the sheer volume of the amount of people in Tehran in neighboring cities who came out to honor Ayatollah Khomeini, the amount of people who were there. You know, one of the things that I thought to myself is, you know, really, you were thinking about doing a ground invasion Trump regime. You were thinking about going into that country with American troops and turning our military

essentially into a meat grinder out there. That's what I was thinking as I saw those sites. I was also amazed actually, not just at the size, but who attended these funeral processions of the Ayatollah. Dozens and dozens of countries attended, top dignitaries from these countries attended. And it seems that as the Trump regime and Netanyahu invaded to try to isolate Iran from the rest of the world, it just completely backfired in their face. And it seems more and more countries are actually there showing support with Iran. And I know not a lot of Western media is showing this. I know there's some reporters on the BBC who have hat tip to them, hat tip to others who are

showing this and sharing this. And I just think it is important to see these images to be aware of what the heck is actually going on there because I'll give you my own perspective, which is I do think that the Iranian regime is not the most popular thing in Iran. And I'm not being an apologist for the Iranian regime by any means at all. I do want to reflect on the situation here where there does seem to be at least in an international level support. I mean, you had the top Chinese dignitaries. Saudi Arabia sent dignitaries there. I mean, you had a lot of people showing up. And even Donald Trump, you know, was saying, wow, I'm surprised that there were millions of people who were crying for the Ayatollah. The Ayatollahs. The Ayatollahs,

for the Shiite community, you know, it was like their pope. It's like you killed their pope. You killed their spiritual leader and the leader of Iran, who was very old to begin with, who was losing popularity within the population. He's now replaced by his son, the Ayatollah Mojaba Khomeini, and you now made the Ayatollah Khomeini a martyr, and you actually unified the people of Iran. And even in the metropolitan areas where I think there is far less support for this Iranian regime right now. They don't want the United States and Netanyahu to take over, in my opinion. They see what's happened in Gaza and the genocide there. They see what's going on in Lebanon in the name of security zones.

They see the consequence of that. And if you look at what's going on and you study it, what I'm saying is reflective of the data that I believe our intelligence community knew and they were trying to communicate with Donald Trump, but Netanyahu was saying, no, that's not true. Iran's going to fall right away. Immediately, it's just going to be 24 hours. They're going to welcome Netanyahu and Trump as conquering heroes. Yeah, we said that was never going to happen at all. And then, you know, Donald Trump chose to believe Hegzith and Rubio were like, this is just going to be easy. This is going to be easy. I showed you some B-roll there at the top of what this, you know,

funeral looked like for the Ayatollah. Let me just show you at a granular level some of the data. By the way, here is a list of the countries that sent official delegations. Turkey, India, Pakistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Iraq, Georgia, Armenia, Afghanistan, Afghanistan, Oman, Qatar, Azerbaijan, Krizakistan, Bangladesh, Tunisia, Lebanon, Malaysia, Cuba, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Gambia, Thailand, Nicaragua. I mean, I can go on and on. Millions of Iranians were outside to attend the first day of the farewell ceremony of the Ayatollah, 35 degrees Celsius heat.

They prepared for that. They had mist stations right there. They were also giving out free food. I saw free watermelon. I saw, you know, a bunch of free drinks. Show you over here as the eulogist at the Tehran Prayer Hall says, we have not come to bury our leader. We have come to avenge him.

Avengers of the martyred leader. Here, let's play this clip right here. Donald Trump told Axios that he was surprised about how big the crowd was, how people were crying for the Ayatollah that shocked and surprised him. take a look right here, some of the scenes below of the morning taking place. And you could be like, they're paying the people to show up there. You told me they're paying millions of people to show up there. Y'all told me that they don't have any money. You said that they're broke. They're about to go bankrupt, that they have zero support, that nobody supports this regime. By the way, let me be clear again.

I think that there are people there. we saw the protest in January. I think there are people there were critical. I think there are tens of millions of people who are deeply critical and don't want this Iranian regime. I also think in Iran, there are millions of people who support the regime. I just think that's the fact. And it's a 90 million person country. It's far bigger than Iraq.

And the stronghold of the regime is there. It's not a regime that can easily be toppled. I just think that's the, you know, oh, man, I don't like what you're saying. I'm just telling you what I think the reality is right here. Let's just play that clip right here so you can see some more scenes. Now, there were lots of people who were holding up kill Trump flags that were raised during the farewell ceremony. Lots of writing on the walls. We will say we will kill hashtag at the Khomeini funeral ceremony.

U.S. official to Axio says, yeah, many of Trump's closest advisors now think that, that Netanyahu was wrong about everything. Yeah, you think? You think he was wrong about everything? Of course he was. But Trump was wrong about everything. I don't view it just as, oh, Netanyahu convinced Trump. This is the president of the United States.

Netanyahu tried to do the same thing with Obama and Biden and Hillary Clinton and everybody, and they didn't fall for it. They stood up. They pushed back against it. Take a look right here. Trump said that he was surprised to see Iranians crying at Kamani's funeral, saying he thought the people hated the four. former supreme leader and suggesting the displays of grief might not be genuine.

I was surprised to see some Iranians crying, Trump said. I thought that people hated Khomeini. Maybe it's fake tears. Trump said if we wanted to, the U.S. could strike Iran's leadership gathered for the funeral, but we won't because we want to preserve nuclear negotiations. One shot, we can take them all out. You're fantasizing about what, nuclear bombing a funeral? Like, that's what you're fantasizing about?

But we're not going to do that because we would have nobody to negotiate with. What a sick thing to say. By the way, here are more images right over here. I mean, you can hear, I mean, the people in Iran are pissed. They're chanting death to America at the Tehran Mosala during the ceremony of Ayatollah. As Brett Erickson says, just to clarify, so people are trying to simultaneously make the claim that the Iranian economy is on the verge of collapse and yet the regime is paid. for millions and millions of people to attend the funeral?

Does that make sense to you? No, it doesn't make sense at all. Here, play this clip. Because here's what the Israeli Persian account, the Mossad Persian account put up there. They write the following. Many arrived, not to mourn, but just to make sure the Ayatollah is dead.

Now, do I think that there are lots of people in Iran who would like to see a regime change? Yes, I do. I do think there are. They were out protesting. Trump said he was going to save them and make their lives better in January. And he didn't. He threw them under the bus.

He said, help is on the way. And then didn't. By the way, the same thing that Lindsey Graham says about Lebanon. Help is on the way. But enough of this propaganda. I mean, this Western propaganda, this Israeli propaganda. Just stop. We have to, the people didn't rise up after the bombing began.

After you blew up Minab Elementary School and killed 170. 68 little girls. And you know what? I also reflect upon right now as well because it's important that we learn our history about Iran Air Flight 655. Now that I'm recording this video on July 5th, I want everybody just to do a little bit of research on Iran Flight 655, which was an Iranian commercial flight that in 1988 on July 3rd was shot down by a U.S. battleship right there. The USS Vincennes shot this commercial airplane, this commercial flight down. It was an airbus that was flying over the strait of Hormuz during the Iran and Iraq war. Two hundred and ninety people aboard Iran Air Flight 655 were killed.

The United States never apologized for it. It happened on July 3rd, 1988. And the U.S. was like, oh, the Iranian commercial. flight. By the way, the pilots were like very experienced pilots who trained in the U.S. We brought our battleships in there because of the Iran and the Iraq War. A few weeks before, the Iraqis attacked a U.S. ship and killed 37 U.S. soldiers mistaking it for Iranians. That put the U.S. military on high alert. But you were in the strait of Ramos with your battleships. You were in the Persian Gulf, you know, to begin with. And then the U.S. saw this

commercial airplane that was flying that was having these Iranian passengers on it. And then they claimed, this is what the U.S. claimed that they were saying, identify yourself, identify yourself. Then there was no response. They blew up the commercial airplane, the Iranian airplane, Iran flight 655. And then they said, well, why didn't the captain respond? Because they didn't have the military signals. You were beaming on a military frequency and they were a commercial flight.

they never saw the missiles that you shot at it coming. So I just want you to reflect on. Did you even know that went down? Did you go Google after this video, Iran Flight 655? It's helpful that we learn our history. Then George H.W. But I said, I'm never apologizing to them. In like 1996, the U.S. ended up paying a settlement for over $100 million.

That's it. $100 million, but didn't take responsibility for the action. And you wonder why the people there are livid. And then we did Manab and then we continued to bomb them and kill lots of innocent Iranians as well. Mark Levin, one of Donald Trump's chief propagandists, one of Netanyahu's chief propagandists as well. He showed the video of the funeral procession for Ayatollah for the Ayatollah. And Levin said, yesterday, the enemy gathered en masse all in one place. Opportunity lost.

What? Opportunity lost. He says, well, what would you want to do? You want to nuclear bomb them. That's the goal. You want to kill millions of Iranians and killed children and women and innocent people as well. Then what happens? Explain to me.

Like, what do these sickos happen? Then you want to have millions of Americans lose their lives fighting some war for Netanyahu, fighting some war that nobody wants. You want to have millions of American soldiers die fighting those people in Iran. You see how many people? That's what you, that's the end game. that Mark Levin and all of these people, these neocan, these Hawks, these Netanyahu agents, in my opinion, this is what you want the outcome to be.

I think, by the way, Danny Citronix, who was an Israeli intelligence officer who studied Iran, I think he says it accurate. Let me just explain to what he says. The large turnout at the funeral serves as a reminder that the assumption that all Iranians oppose the Islamic Republic has never reflected the full picture. It is also consistent with what we saw throughout the war when large crowds gathered in cities across Iran to express support for the Ayatollah, for the state, for the Iranian regime. There is no doubt that many Iranians opposed the regime and would like to see fundamental political change. True.

But it is equally difficult to ignore that the Islamic Republic retains a significant and resilient base of support that continues to stand by it even under extreme pressure. One of the key lessons from the war is that many assessments in both Israel and the United States underestimated the regime in Iran's social and political resilience. Understanding the size of Iran's missile arsenal is one thing. Understanding how deeply embedded the Islamic Republic remains within important segments of Iranian society is another. And it's not just Iranian society, Iraqi society, Yemen society, Pakistan society, In places where there are large Shiite populations, the Ayatoll is their Pope. Is their Pope?

They have massive, massive amounts of support there. Religious support, cultural support. And again, you can be like, Ben, why are you defending them? I'm not, I just, we need to have realistic intelligence assessments about what's going on in the world. So we're not rushing into never-ending wars where Americans are getting killed and we're having catastrophe hit our economy like we're seeing. right now. That's why. And I fear that the escalation trap is still there and that Trump's going to keep falling right into it. The gap of information, as Danny Citrinix explains, help produce a strategy that rested on highly optimistic assumptions about the regime's ability and the likelihood

of its rapid collapse. The fact that some observers still explain away every public display of support as simply paid crowds risks overlooking a more complex and strategically important reality. That's the reality. You can get upset at me or not, but that's the reality that's taking place right now. A few other things, scriptural diplomacy. So as these foreign leaders showed up to pay their respects to Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran paired foreign delegations at Ayatollah Khomeini's funeral with politically targeted Quranic verses confronting rivals or now they're building more of a understanding with Saudi Arabia and rallying regional allies like Hezbollah and Hamas with tailored scriptural messages. Saudi Arabia received a verse about two armies meeting in battle,

one believing in Islam and Quran, one not. Turkey got a verse elevating those who who fight over those who sit. The Lebanese government heard a verse about people refusing to sacrifice if asked. Hezbollah was told, do not weaken or grieve, you are superior. Hamas received the verse honoring men who fulfilled their covenant with God. Some have died. Others are waiting. Yemen's Houthis got a verse praising believers who fought without weakening.

Qatar received a verse about forgiveness and divine favor, read as a nod to its mediating role. All of that right there was compacted into the symbolism that was taking place at these proceedings. And again, I want to share it with you just so you have a sense of what was actually going on and what was taking place here. So you can see for yourself. I'll just share with you. The heads, you know, how like the United States, like Iran is so divided. All of their branches of government hate each other and they don't know who their leaders are. Let me show you the photo.

The heads of the three branches of government and senior officials attended Tehran's funeral. You can see right here the judicial, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, the spiritual level, the political level, Iraqchi, Galabaf, the kind of the spiritual leaders who elect the Ayatollah. Mojaba was not there, obviously, because he felt that if he left his hiding place, he would be killed by, Netanyahu. One of the developments we've also seen take place is a deeper story right here of the Islamabad Quartet, as it's being described. Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, even Saudi Arabia, and Iran, the Islamabad Quartet. And one of the things that we saw is when an Iranian civil aircraft landed in Sana'a in Yemen,

breaking Yemen's 11-year blockade, the reopening of the Sana' Tehran route does seem to be evidence of the Islamabad Quartet and Iran strengthening its relations. I mean, we heard M.B. Ghal Abaf and also Iran's deputy foreign minister talk about the importance China will be playing right now. Basically, moving out the U.S. security umbrella and replacing it with a China security umbrella, but that's really led by the Islamabad Quartet and the Arab nations. That's why if you look at the Memorandum of Understanding, it says that Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz, along with the Arab nations decide on the future transit,

that it is an Arab nation decision, not a United States, but the Trump regime will continue to violate the MOU, try to open up that route in Oman. And by the way, it's why I also tell you about Iran Air Flight 6'5, 5, because I got to know our history. You know, we were putting tankers in the Persian Gulf and shooting Iranian commercial airplanes out in 1988 and then not taking accountability for it.

And so you wonder the root causes also over or some of the lingering feelings would be an understatement of what's going down there as well. You had M.B. Ghalabaf also putting out statements regarding the Trump regime. Imagine having a 40-something million of your own citizens regarding the U.S. on food stamps and calling another nation hungry. This is not a proclamation.

This is projection. Keep your snap advice. Our assets, our choices, mind your own malnutrition rates, United States, mind your own malnutrition rates. You see here the, the delegate. from China arriving, some of their top diplomats over there. Pakistan. These are the main mediators, by the way. Also, Pakistan gave Donald Trump $500 million or so for crypto. They created a crypto fund and that really kind of elevated their role and their connections with Donald Trump. But take it,

these are the mediators. A high-level Pakistani delegation comprising the prime minister, the chief of Army Staff Munir, the foreign minister, attended the farewell, Selim, ceremony of Ayatollah Khomeini. Prime Minister of Pakistan also signed the memorial book in honor of the Iranian leader right there, vice chairman of the National People's Congress of China, Medvedevide, Putin's envoy and delegation arriving right there. I'll show you more photos over here. Al Jazeera's footage from the first day of the farewell ceremony of Khomeini. You see women here, you see people right there. I'm just giving you a snapshot into the reality. If I know this, our intelligence community knows this.

Okay, this is the reality of the situation. So we need to approach it as adults with levels of intelligence and see what's happening here and what's going on. And as Trump's like, whoa, my God, the crowds are so big. The crowds are so big. What am I going to do? Yeah, they are. And that is a population that has been more unified as a result of your Netanyahu's actions,

not just there, but the genocide in Gaza, the genocide in Lebanon, and the general imperialistic behavior over decades and decades and decades, that's that, you may not want to hear that, but that's what the people feel there. And so how we approach this, and when you constantly violate the memorandum of understanding, and every time you're in a negotiation, you then invade and now under the MOU, you're acting, ah, they still want to negotiate with us. They're dying to make a deal. What do you mean? You made the deal. It's the MOU. There's no more negotiating. Those terms get implemented in the long form. That's the deal. Anyway, there you have. Let me know what you think. I think illuminating. Hit subscribe. Let's get to

seven million subscribers. Thanks for watching, everybody. Can't get enough Midas. Check out the Midas plus substack for ad-free articles, reports, podcasts, daily recaps from Ron Philip, and more. Sign up for free now at Midasplus.com.