President Donald Trump lashed out on Friday against former FBI director James Comey in an Instagram post containing an image that Trump’s senior officials said it was a threat.
In an Instagram publication now eliminated, Comey showed a photo of “8647” written in sea shells in Arena, with the legend “Fresh shell formation on my beach walk”.
Some allies of Trump’s extreme right, including Laura Loomer, have claimed that Comey is asking for violence against the president.
However, “86” something has quite broad interpretations such as a term of jargon, and can simply mean Nix or “get rid of” something, according to Merriam-Webster.
Comey says he thought that the message in the placing of the projectiles was political, but said he did not realize that he required violence against Trump.
President Donald Trump attends a business forum at Abu Dhabi, on May 16, 2025.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP through Getty Images
“It never occurred to me, but I oppose the violence of any kind,” Comey said in another post on Instagram.
Trump, however, told Fox News Friday that he was not buying the explanation of Comey.
“I knew exactly what that meant. A child knows what that meant. If you are the FBI director and you don’t know what that meant, that meant murder,” said the president.
Trump fired Comey in his first administration and the president said that Comey still had an ax to grind.
“Well, he apologized because he was beaten, it’s a very bad guy,” Trump said.
President Donald Trump speaking during a round table about fiscal policy at White Sulphur Springs, W.va., April 5, 2018, left, and former FBI director James Comey spoke during an audience of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 8, 2017.
Evan vucci | Andrew Harnik/AP
The president did not take a position on whether Comey, whom he provided a “dirty police”, should be investigated, but postponed before the attorney general Pam Bondi.
The Secretary of National Security, Kristi Noem, said Thursday in an X publication that the United States Secret Service is investigating Comey’s Post.
“FBI’s former director James Comey only asked for the murder of @potus Trump,” he said.
The director of the FBI, Kash Patel, also said that he was aware of the position and that he was providing support to Noem’s efforts.
FBI former director James Comey speaks at the Harvard Kennedy school with Eric Rosenbach Harvard on February 24, 2020 in Boston, Massachusetts.
Paul Marotta/Getty Images
The director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard asked that Comey be imprisoned.
“Any other person with a position of influence he has, people who take very seriously what a type of their stature, their experience and what the propaganda means have created it, I am very worried about the president’s life,” he told Fox News hosts host Jesse Waters.
She said Comey should be put “after bars.”
