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Trump claims James Comeyâs â86â post called for his assassination
Former FBI director facing threats of criminal prosecution for posting â??86 47â?? in seashells
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Donald Trump claims a social media post from former FBI director James Comey called for the presidentâs assassination.
On Thursday, Comey posted a picture of sea shells in the shape of â86 47,â a reference to the 47th president and the term â86,â commonly used in bars and restaurants to cancel an order or toss someone out.
âHe knew exactly what that meant. A child knows what that meant,â Trump told Fox News host Bret Baier in an interview airing on Friday. âIf youâre the FBI director and you donât know what that meant, that meant âassassination.â It says that loud and clear.â
The president called him a âdirty copâ 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 âCool shell formation on my beach walk.â
Administration officials quickly fell in line to denounce the post and demand investigations and prosecution.
Donald Trump claims James Comeyâs Instagram post of a picture of seashells arranged to spell â86 47â called for his assassination (REUTERS/AFP via Getty Images )Homeland Security Kristi Noem swiftly claimed Comey was calling for Trumpâs assassination and announced DHS and the US Secret Service were investigating. Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said the agency is âawareâ of Comeyâs post and âwe take rhetoric like this very seriously. White House deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich claimed the post âcan clearly be interpreted as âa hitâ on the sitting president of the United States.â
Intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard called it âa veiled call to action to murder the sitting president of the United Statesâ and suggested Comey should be immediately imprisoned.
âJames Comey should be held accountable and put behind bars for this,â Gabbard told Fox News host Jesse Watters on Thursday.
Comey â whose firing by Trump during his first term sparked the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller â has long been a target of the president and his allies following his investigation to determine whether Trumpâs 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 âsome shells I saw on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message.â
âI didnât realize some folks associate those numbers with violence,â he wrote. âIt never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.â
Itâs 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.
Comey was fired by Trump during his first term following an investigation into whether the presidentâs associates worked with Russian figures to interfere in the 2016 election (AP )Several other high-profile right-wing figures have used the term â86â in recent years, including now-former Rep. Matt Gaetz, who claimed last February that his allies in Congress had â86âdâ Republican leadership.
In 2022, far-right activist Jack Posobiec wrote â86 46,â referring to then-president Joe Biden.
Trump himself has been repeatedly accused of using violent rhetoric against his perceived enemies and political opponents, which federal prosecutors and state attorneys have argued inspired a wave of threats against judges, lawyers, officials and their families.
During his 2016 campaign, he said that if his then-rival Hillary Clinton could appoint judges, there is ânothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I donât know.â
In 2023, Trump accused Gen. Mark A. Milley, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, of âtreasonâ over a phone call to a Chinese official. âThis is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH,â he wrote on Truth Social.
Throughout his criminal investigations and civil trials, prosecutors routinely warned judges that the presidentâs rhetoric and social media posts â including sharing an image of himself wielding a baseball bat against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg â could derail the prospect of fair trials and intimidate jurors. Law enforcement reported âserious and credible threatsâ of violence as well as hoax bomb threats and suspicious packages.
Last year, Trump shared a post on Truth Social suggesting former congresswoman Liz Cheney is âguilty of treasonâ and should be tried in âtelevised military tribunalsâ after she joined a congressional investigation into the events surrounding January 6.
âLetâs see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face,â he told Tucker Carlson last year, referencing Cheney, whom Trump accused of being a âwar hawk.â
During the 2024 campaign, Trump shared a video showing a supporterâs truck with a graphic depicting a hog-tied Joe Biden.
 — Joe Biden’s time in public office is now behind him, but his age and mental acuity have become a litmus test for the next leaders in his party. %23trump)
