The Trump Administration has launched an investigation into former FBI Director James Comey following a now-deleted Instagram post that some officials claim contained an overt threat against President Donald Trump.
On Thursday, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem posted on X (formerly Twitter) that Comey’s Instagram photo—featuring seashells arranged to display the number "8647"—is under official investigation. Noem alleged that the post could be interpreted as a call for the assassination of President Trump.
The number “86” is widely known in restaurant slang to mean the removal or cancellation of an item and has also been colloquially associated with killing or eliminating. The number “47” is a reference to Donald Trump, who is the 47th President of the United States in his second term.
FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed that the bureau is in communication with the Secret Service about the post.
In a follow-up Instagram post on Friday, Comey claimed he was unaware that the numbers could be interpreted as promoting violence, stating that the image was intended as a “political message.” President Trump responded later in the day, saying that Comey “knew exactly what he meant.”
Comey served as FBI Director from 2013 until May 2017 and oversaw the launch of "Crossfire Hurricane," the FBI's counterintelligence investigation into alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 election. The investigation ultimately led to the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Comey was fired by Trump in May 2017, a move critics argued was an attempt to disrupt the ongoing probe.
Ultimately, the allegations into the Muller investigation did not produce any evidence of ties between Trump and Russia, though it did uncover evidence of an organized plot within the Democratic Party and Obama Administration to create a non-existing scandal to first, prevent Trump from winning and then to place his first Presidency under siege.
Since his dismissal, Comey has become one of Trump’s most vocal critics, authoring the 2018 memoir A Higher Loyalty, in which he admitted that his assumption Hillary Clinton would win the 2016 election influenced key decisions during his tenure.
While some Trump critics argue that Comey’s Instagram post was simply advocating Trump's removal from the Presidency, the controversy arises less than a year after two assassination attempts against Trump—most notably a July incident in Butler, Pennsylvania, where Trump narrowly survived an attack.
The Butler attempt prompted some Democrats to publicly call for de-escalation in political rhetoric, amid growing concerns that charged language may be inciting violence. Trump supporters argue that inflammatory messaging from prominent figures, including former officials like Comey, may be contributing to an atmosphere of radicalization.