As Iran sought to turn former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s funeral into a global show of legitimacy, a handful of Americans traveled to Tehran to help push the regime’s propaganda, praise the late leader, and denounce the United States.
Khamenei, who ruled Iran for 36 years, oversaw the Islamic Republic through decades of conflict with the West, the expansion of Tehran’s network of terrorist proxies across the Middle East, and the brutal suppression of domestic dissent before he was killed in U.S.-Israeli strikes earlier this year.
The funeral is more than a memorial. Iranian officials have spent months organizing what they hope will become one of the largest public gatherings in history, expecting tens of millions of mourners to rally under the slogan, “We Must Rise.” The regime has framed the ceremonies as both a show of national unity and a call for revenge over Khamenei’s death, inviting foreign delegations from more than 30 countries to help project that message to the world.
While that revenge would be directed at the United States, several Americans answered the invitation and have been working to help project Iran’s message to the world.
Jackson Hinkle
Jackson Hinkle, an American social media grifter who has built his online brand defending U.S. adversaries and authoritarian regimes, traveled to Tehran for the former supreme leader’s funeral, where he spent days amplifying Iranian regime propaganda to his 3.8 million followers on X.
“I came here as an American to say that I fully reject the crimes of the U.S. empire and the Zionist entity against the good people of Iran,” Hinkle said from Tehran. Days later, he posted: “LONG LIVE KHAMENEI!”
Born in San Clemente, California, Hinkle is a co-founder of the American Communist Party and has become known for championing the causes of Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Russia while frequently spreading conspiracy theories online.
During his trip, Hinkle met with senior Iranian regime officials, including government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani and Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei, according to his X account.
He filled his social media feed with videos celebrating the regime, including crowds burning American, British, and Israeli flags, mourners throwing objects at a portrait of President Donald Trump, and supporters waving Hezbollah flags.
In another video, Hinkle stood on stage waving a red flag — associated with calls for vengeance in Shiite Islam — while leading chants of, “Down with Zionists.”
Hinkle has repeatedly aligned himself with Iranian-backed groups. In February 2025, he attended the funeral of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon. The following month, he traveled to Yemen for a four-day conference hosted by the Houthis, where he condemned U.S. military strikes against the terrorist group and met with Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree.
On July 5, Hinkle was in Tehran as crowds gathered for the funeral, telling his followers that Iranians were united “against the United States” and “against the Zionist entity.”
He ended the video by declaring, “If there’s one thing I can tell you here tonight, it’s that the people here want their revenge — and revenge I am sure they will get.”
Max Blumenthal
Far-left activist writer Max Blumenthal joined war drummers in Tehran as crowds gathered to mourn former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, posting video of himself participating in a Shia ritual meant to evoke battle and martyrdom.
“The drummers at Tehran’s Tajrish Square asked me to join them for a few minutes,” Blumenthal wrote on X. He explained that the Dammam drumming tradition recreates “the sounds of the Battle of Karbala,” with deep bass drums symbolizing the pounding of horse hooves and cymbals representing clashing swords. He added that the drummers had gathered for nightly rallies that have filled the square since “the U.S. and Israel imposed war on Iran.”
The drummers at Tehran’s Tajrish Square asked me to join them for a few minutes
They’re playing a distinctively Shia style from southern Iran and Iraq called Dammam, named for the drum, which evokes the sounds of the battle of Karbala. The deep bass drums recreate the beating of… pic.twitter.com/pNEENQqxMV
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) July 6, 2026
Blumenthal, the editor of The Grayzone and son of former Clinton adviser Sidney Blumenthal, said he spent his time in Iran interviewing members of the country’s negotiating team, government officials, academics, and ordinary Iranians.
During the ongoing funeral, Blumenthal wrote that Khamenei’s assassination had strengthened, rather than weakened, the Islamic Republic.
“If the assassination of Khamenei was designed to spur regime change, his funeral demonstrates how badly it has backfired,” he wrote. In another post, he declared that the funeral had “consolidated the Islamic Republic and its revolutionary society as a political reality that cannot be erased through regime change, war, or sanctions.”
Blumenthal also posted interviews with mourners, writing that “a common sentiment at the funeral for Khamenei was incandescent rage at the American leadership that authorized his assassination, but a refusal to hold average Americans collectively responsible for the crime.”
Blumenthal has long drawn criticism for his coverage of Israel and the Middle East. He has authored books comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, repeatedly defended Hamas following its wars with Israel, and referred to Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel as a “defender of apartheid” after his death. Following Hamas’ October 7 massacre of civilians, he dismissed Israeli accounts of sexual violence by writing that Israel was “projecting its own sick rape culture onto Palestinians to justify its criminal post-10/7 rampage.”
Christopher Helali
Christopher Helali, an elected local official in Vermont who serves as Orange County’s high bailiff, declared himself “the ONLY elected USA politician in Iran right now” during the funeral.
While at the funeral, he posted a selfie in front of a “Kill Trump” banner, writing that the “ELECTED High Bailiff of Orange County, VT, USA” was in Iran to “honor, salute, and pray for Imam Khamenei and his family.”
The ELECTED High Bailiff of Orange County, VT, USA is in Qom, Iran to honor, salute, and pray for Imam Khamenei and his family. pic.twitter.com/ZqHy1VWUV4
— Christopher Helali (@ChrisHelali) July 7, 2026
On July 4, the 250th anniversary of American independence, Helali wrote that he was in Iran “to honor and participate in the funeral” of Khamenei, adding: “Death to U.S. Imperialism and Zionism!” In another post, he wrote, “Such an honor to be here to pray for, salute, and honor our beloved Imam Khamenei!” Days earlier, after Khamenei’s death, he declared, “Imam Khamenei lives on in all of us!”
Helali was elected as a write-in candidate in 2024. He serves as Orange County’s high bailiff, a little-known Vermont office that exists primarily to assume a sheriff’s duties if the sheriff is unable to serve or, in the rare event it becomes necessary, to arrest the sheriff.
Despite holding elected office in Vermont, Helali lives primarily in Moscow, where he told Vermont’s White River Valley Herald he feels safer than in the United States. He also serves as the international secretary of the American Communist Party and works for an international law firm with operations across Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. Before entering politics, he worked as a high school teacher in Hanover, New Hampshire.
Helali told the newspaper he has “been detained off and on since 2013” by federal authorities and claimed he was placed on a Department of Homeland Security watch list after fighting against ISIS in Syria.
While in Iran this week, Helali also posted a video of Khamenei’s coffin accompanied by a broken-heart emoji.
Calla Walsh
Twenty-one-year-old American activist Calla Walsh traveled to Tehran as one of the Iranian regime’s most vocal American defenders, spending days praising the late supreme leader and promoting his funeral on social media.
Walsh, who once lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, previously volunteered for Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s 2020 presidential campaign, helped organize youth support for Sen. Ed Markey, and canvassed for Michelle Wu’s mayoral campaign before becoming one of the most prominent young American supporters of the Islamic Republic.
As a teenager, she was profiled favorably by the New York Times as a social media activist helping shake up the Democratic Party in Massachusetts.
She recently relocated to Beirut and regularly contributes to Press TV, the Iranian government’s English-language television network, which is under U.S. sanctions. According to The Free Press, Walsh was placed on a suspicious persons watch list because of her extensive dealings with the governments of Iran and Cuba.
The outlet also reported that she participated in “guerrilla-style” raids targeting Israeli defense companies in the United States, leading to her arrest in 2024, and has called for the assassination of Israeli officials and their allies.
Last year, Walsh was seen in a video saying “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” during a memorial event in Tehran, according to Iran International.
On March 3, following the deaths of four U.S. soldiers in an Iranian-backed drone attack, Walsh wrote on X: “They all died fighting for fascism, genocide, pedophilia, and cannibalism.”
Earlier this year, Walsh reportedly traveled to Iran as part of what critics described as a regime-backed propaganda tour, where she defended the Islamic Republic and downplayed the regime’s violent crackdown on anti-government protesters.
At the funeral, she called Khamenei a martyr and praised him, calling the funeral “a resounding referendum on the Iranian masses’ loyalty to the Islamic Revolution.”
“He was a leader to all people in the world who struggled against imperialism, against arrogance, against Zionism, against genocide,” Walsh said. “To me, he was the greatest anti-imperialist leader to live during my lifetime.”
In another post, she wrote: “Glory and honor to the martyred leader of the free world, Sayyed Ali Khamenei.”
CNN senior international correspondent Frederik Pleitgen was granted access to cover Khamenei’s funeral by the Iranian regime. CNN noted that its team was operating in Iran only with the government’s permission but “maintains full editorial control.”
In one report from the funeral procession, Pleitgen stood amid a crowd chanting “Death to America.” Footage from the scene also showed at least one sign depicting President Donald Trump with crosshairs over his head.
CNN’s Fred Pleitgen reports from inside Tehran, where Iran’s new supreme leader still has not been seen publicly after the third day of his father’s funeral. CNN operates in Iran only with the permission of the government but maintains full editorial control of its reports. pic.twitter.com/YRAIfHU2Dm
— Erin Burnett OutFront (@OutFrontCNN) July 7, 2026
“As you can see, the people here are extremely angry,” Pleitgen said. “What they’re chanting right now is ‘Death to America,’ and they have vowed revenge for the killing of the supreme leader, both against the United States as well as President Donald Trump.”
Other Americans made an appearance at the funeral, too — just not by choice.
Among the crowds were threatening posters depicting prominent Americans with crosshairs over their heads above the warning: “Sooner or later your heads will roll.”
Those featured included President Donald Trump, GOP megadonor Miriam Adelson, Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro, activist Laura Loomer, tech billionaire Peter Thiel, Sen. Lindsey Graham, and Foundation for Defense of Democracies CEO Mark Dubowitz.
Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad, who reposted video of the display, said the footage was being amplified by Russian state media.
“When the Islamic Republic threatens to kill you, believe them. I know from experience,” she wrote in her post with the video.
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