James Comey, former Director of the FBI, posted a photo on Instagram in May 2025 of seashells arranged on a beach to spell out "86 47". He captioned it innocently: "Cool shell formation on my beach walk." After backlash, he quickly deleted it and claimed he had no idea the numbers could be interpreted as a threat against President Trump (the 47th president). He insisted he thought it was just a harmless political message.
This claim strains credulity to the breaking point.
What "86 47" Actually Means
"86" is well-established American slang meaning "to get rid of," "throw out," "cancel," or — in darker mob/restaurant underworld contexts — to eliminate or kill. It has been in use for decades.
"47" unambiguously refers to Donald Trump as the 47th President.
Combined, "86 47" has circulated widely in anti-Trump circles as a call to remove or eliminate him from office — with some interpreting the "86" in its more violent sense, especially amid multiple real assassination attempts on Trump.
The phrase wasn't obscure. It appeared on T-shirts, protest signs, and social media for months before Comey's post.
Comey was FBI Director
This is the part that makes his "I had no idea" defence laughable.
As FBI Director (2013–2017), Comey:
Oversaw the nation's premier law enforcement and intelligence agency.
Regularly dealt with threats against public officials, including presidents.
Investigated organised crime, gangs, and domestic extremism — arenas where slang like "86" (in its elimination sense) is common knowledge.
Was steeped in security protocols, coded language, dog whistles, and threat assessment.
A man who ran the FBI — an agency that analyses social media for threats daily — expects us to believe he saw "86 47" formed in seashells and thought, "Oh, what a clever, innocent political statement," with zero awareness of its loaded meaning? Especially after years of intense political warfare surrounding Trump?
It's not credible.
The Pattern of Selective Ignorance
This fits a broader pattern with Comey: claiming ignorance or procedural purity when it suits him, while demonstrating sharp political instincts elsewhere. The same man who:
Famously reopened the Clinton email investigation days before the 2016 election,
Leaked memos through a friend to influence the Russia probe narrative,
And positioned himself as a moral guardian of institutions,
now wants us to accept that he was blissfully unaware of a widely circulated anti-Trump slogan.
Even if one accepts the most benign interpretation ("just get rid of him politically"), posting it as a former FBI Director crosses basic lines of propriety for someone who once held immense power and continues to insert himself into public discourse.
Credibility Matters
The former head of the FBI should be held to a higher standard of precision with language and symbols. Claiming ignorance of something that was circulating openly in political discourse — and that any reasonably informed person following current events would recognize — damages whatever credibility he had left.
Whether the legal case against him for a "true threat" holds up in court is a separate question (First Amendment issues are real here). But the claim that he simply "didn't know" what "86 47" meant fails the common-sense test.
When the ex-FBI Director plays dumb on something this obvious, it reinforces the growing public suspicion that parts of our intelligence and law enforcement leadership have been far more politically tuned-in than they like to admit.