It was just another large meeting of the Iranian leadership, but Saturday’s example was the last one for Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was among those national leaders perishing when their compound was bombed. Our Mark Alexander gave a rundown of Operation Epic Fury yesterday. The focus here is the American media’s reaction.

While it may have been easy to miss the celebrations and protests that occurred in the immediate wake of the early-morning raid this past Saturday, the real tone was set by many in the mainstream media who just can’t stand to give any credit to President Donald Trump.

The lion’s share of ire, of course, went to The Washington Post. The paper put up a glowing tribute to a man it described this way:

With his bushy white beard and easy smile, Ayatollah Khamenei cut a more avuncular figure in public than his perpetually scowling but much more revered mentor, and he was known to be fond of Persian poetry and classic Western novels, especially Victor Hugo’s “Les Misérables.” But like the uncompromising Khomeini, he opposed moderates’ efforts to promote political and social reforms domestically and to secure rapprochement with the United States.

Noting, “Yes, the Washington Post actually eulogized Khamenei by admiring his ‘bushy white beard and easy smile.’ The man was a terrorist, not Santa Claus!,” was on par with the overall reaction, the Daily Wire helped ratio the Post out the wazoo.

Even the Post’s fellow travelers at The New York Times simply called Khamenei a “hard-line cleric.” Still, the Iranian dictator got a better headline upon his death than did American cartoonist Scott Adams.

So what is it about this outpouring of support in the media for a guy whose favorite slogan was “Death to America”? As the comparison to Adams demonstrates, there’s no restriction anymore about not speaking ill of the dead — just ask anyone in a left-wing newsroom their honest opinion about Charlie Kirk.

National Review’s Becket Adams runs a bit further with this point, comparing the mainstream media’s overall coverage of our enemies. “Whereas members of the press previously saw the Soviets as direct adversaries of Reagan, whom they didn’t exactly favor, many today genuinely believe there’s an alliance between the current White House and the Kremlin, or at least a sense of kinship,” Adams explains. “So, the current media attitude against modern Russia might not be about Russia itself. It could be about Trump. This would certainly explain the whiplash quality of coverage from a press that once spoke favorably of the Soviet Union but is now anti–Soviet Union lite.”

But even in conservative media, not everyone was in favor of the way Khamenei was removed. Veteran political analyst John Fund brought up Executive Order 12333. “In 1981, President Ronald Reagan issued Executive Order 12333, which states: ‘No person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination,’” said Fund. “It originated from revelations in the 1970s that exposed CIA involvement in plots against leaders such as Fidel Castro (in Cuba), Patrice Lumumba (in Congo), Rafael Trujillo (in the Dominican Republic), and others during the Cold War. Reagan’s order followed one made by President Gerald Ford in 1976, which held that assassinations violated international law and were against long-term U.S. interests.”

On the other hand, though, National Review’s editors exclaimed, “Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu delivered him to justice, and they deserve the world’s gratitude.” The early indications and President Trump’s track record lead this writer to believe that our president just ran out of patience with Iranian leaders who had stalled and beaten around the bush for over a decade when their desire for nuclear weapons led them to violate numerous agreements and even stall for time in the days leading up to their demise.

Just compare the Astroturf demonstrations whipped up by leftists for their latest outrage against all things Trump and pro-America with the sheer joy Iranian expats exhibited around the nation, wrapping themselves in the former Shah-era national flag and cheering the opportunity for freedom for those back home. It’s obvious that we have to caution against shifting our role from liberators to nation builders, but at this initial moment of exuberance, there’s a lot of hope that Iran can take its proper place among great nations and good friends to America.