Trump attacks Comey for 8647 post and claims ‘a child knows’ it was calling for his assassination
Donald Trump claims a social media post from former FBI director James Comey called for the president’s assassination.
On Thursday, Comey posted a picture of sea shells in the shape of “86 47,” a reference to the 47th president and the term “86,” commonly used in bars and restaurants to cancel an order or toss someone out.
“He knew exactly what that meant. A child knows what that meant,” Trump told Fox News host Bret Baier in an interview airing on Friday. “If you’re the FBI director and you don’t know what that meant, that meant ‘assassination.’ It says that loud and clear.”
The president called him a “dirty cop” and said he will leave a decision on whether to prosecute him over a social media post with Attorney General Pam Bondi.
On Instagram, Comey posted an image of the seashells with the caption “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.”
Administration officials quickly fell in line to denounce the post and demand investigations and prosecution.
Homeland Security Kristi Noem swiftly claimed Comey was calling for Trump’s assassination and announced DHS and the US Secret Service were investigating. Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said the agency is “aware” of Comey’s post and “we take rhetoric like this very seriously. White House deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich claimed the post “can clearly be interpreted as ‘a hit’ on the sitting president of the United States.”
Intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard called it “a veiled call to action to murder the sitting president of the United States” and suggested Comey should be immediately imprisoned.
“James Comey should be held accountable and put behind bars for this,” Gabbard told Fox News host Jesse Watters on Thursday.
Comey — whose firing by Trump during his first term sparked the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller — has long been a target of the president and his allies following his investigation to determine whether Trump’s associates coordinated with Russian figures to interfere with the 2016 presidential election.
He subsequently deleted the image and explained in a separate post that he had posted a picture of “some shells I saw on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message.”
“I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence,” he wrote. “It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.”
Several other high-profile right-wing figures have used the term “86” in recent years, including now-former Rep. Matt Gaetz, who claimed last February that his allies in Congress had “86’d” Republican leadership.
In 2022, far-right activist Jack Posobiec wrote “86 46,” referring to then-president Joe Biden.
It’s unclear on what grounds federal law enforcement officials could investigate Comey, as it is not illegal to post pictures of shells, even if they spell out what the president and his allies claim is offensive or threatening, which is largely First Amendment-protective activity.
