Is '86' a call to kill or just slang? Phrase at center of James Comey indictment sparks debate
On Wednesday, the U.S. Justice Department indicted former FBI Director James Comey over charges of threatening the President of the United States, and central to the investigation is a social media post where Comey had arranged seashells to read, "86 47." When asked about the indictment, President Donald Trump told reporters that '86' was a mob term indicating an assassination. "Do you ever see the movies? 86 him. The mobster says to one of his wonderful associates, 86 him. That means kill him. I think of it as a mob term," Trump said. The President made a similar claim in a Truth Social post.
"People like Comey have created tremendous danger, I think, for politicians and others," Trump told reporters. "You know, Comey is a dirty cop. He's a very dirty cop. He cheated on the elections. He tried to help Hillary Clinton. As you know, he dismissed a lot of things that he should have proceeded with. I wasn't involved, but he should have proceeded with, no, he's a dirty cop. He's a crooked man."
CNN’s @KaitlanCollins: “You were talking about how busy you were this morning. James Comey was in court. He self surrendered. He’s now been charged a second time, this time over a social media post with seashells that said 8647. Do you really think that he was endangering your… pic.twitter.com/km8KWVbzZ9
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 29, 2026
Is '86' mob lingo for murder?
While President Trump and his supporters have pressed that "86 47" was a coded message calling for the assassination of the 47th president of the United States, many critics have come out expressing that the number has nothing to do with the mafia. Political commentator Joanne Carducci, known for her 'Sane(ish) with Jo Carducci' podcast, said that the number was used by restaurants to alert its staff when they were out of something.
As per the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the number '86' was traditionally used to refer to "an item at a soda fountain, or lunch counter, that had been sold out.” Its use widened over time and is used in a variety of ways today. As a verb, it means "to refuse to serve a customer," and was later broadened to include "to get rid of; to throw out." However, this was only used in the context of escorting out an inebriated customer from a bar. "Among the most recent senses adopted is a logical extension of the previous ones, with the meaning of "to kill." We do not enter this sense, due to its relative recency and sparseness of use," the dictionary notes.
'This won't be the end of it': James Comey on his indictment
Comey responded to the indictment with a video he posted on Substack. He said that "this won't be the end of it," and asserted that he remained innocent, unafraid, and a believer in the independent judiciary. "It is really important that all of us remember this is not who we are as a country, this is not how the Department of Justice (DOJ) is supposed to be, and the good news is that we get closer every day to restoring those values," he said.
As per a report in NBC, the two-count indictment states that the photo that was posted on social media in May 2025 was "a serious expression of an intent to do harm to the President of the United States." However, the DOJ may have a hard time convincing the courts. Former senior Justice Department official John Keller believes that '86' was ambiguous and "it doesn’t necessarily threaten violence."
