16 May 2025 , 07:32
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A conspiracy theory circulating in right-wing circles claims that a former FBI director posted an assassination threat against Donald Trump – using nothing more but seashells.
James Comey, who was appointed by Barack Obama and then fired by the Trumpduring his first term in 2017, shared an arrangement of shells that spelled out ‘8647’ on Instagram.
The picture was accompanied by a seemingly-innocent caption, ‘Cool shell formation on my beach walk’.
This is what landed Comey in hot water. Among some Trump supporters, the number is interpreted as a threat on his life.
It is also not only die-hard Trump loyalists pushing the conspiracy theory – even Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem echoed the claim.
She wrote on X: ‘Disgraced former FBI director James Comey just called for the assassination of Trump.
The now-deleted picture on Comey’s Instagram account
‘DHS and Secret Service is investigating this threat and will respond appropriately.’
Comey later took down the post, releasing another one, saying that he was unaware the apparent political message could have been associated with violence.
He wrote: ‘I did not realise some folks associate those numbers with violence.
‘It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.’
What does 8647 mean?
In US parlance the number 86 can be used as a verb, meaning to throw somebody out of a bar for being drunk or disorderly.
Meanwhile, 47 is code for Trump – the 47th president.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary says on its website that a recent meaning of the term was ‘to kill’ but that it had not adopted that ‘due to its relative recency and sparseness of use.’
Editor-in-Chief