A mystery message seemingly aimed at President Donald Trump has quietly appeared on the National Mall, triggering an investigation by authorities.
The numbers “8647” have been plastered across the grounds of the Washington, D.C. landmark, aerial photos taken by Reuters showed Thursday, in an apparent reference to what has become a rallying cry for critics of the 79-year-old president.
The number “86” is widely known in the service industry to mean expel or get rid of something. Trump, meanwhile, is the 47th president of the United States.
U.S. Park Police said it responded to the scene at around 11:30 a.m. after receiving a report of vandalism at the west lawn of the Washington Monument. Authorities have collected grass samples for testing, and the investigation is underway. The National Guard was also spotted at the scene.
Photos taken as early as two days ago show the numerals, which are discernible only from tall vantage points like the Washington Monument, and not from ground level on the National Mall, according to The Washington Post.
“The deranged vandalism on our National Mall will not be tolerated,” an Interior Department spokesperson said in a statement. “Any threat against the president is taken very seriously by the Department, and our U.S. Park Police will investigate this incident and hold those responsible accountable.”
The string of numbers first sparked a firestorm in May last year, when former FBI Director James Comey posted an image of seashells forming the numbers 8647.
“Cool shell formation on my beach walk,” he wrote in the caption of his now-deleted Instagram post.
MAGAworld quickly went up in arms over the post, with the Secret Service ominously announcing that it would “vigorously investigate anything that can be taken as a potential threat against our protectees.”
Comey took down the post within hours, writing in a follow-up statement on Instagram: “I posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message. I didn’t realize 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.”
But it was already too late.
The Instagram post eventually blew up into an indictment of Comey as part of Trump’s revenge tour against his political foes. When the initial indictment got tossed out by a judge, the Justice Department scrambled to indict Comey a second time.
The former FBI chief has consistently maintained innocence.
“Nothing has changed with me. I’m still innocent, I’m still not afraid, and I still believe in the independent federal judiciary, so let’s go,” Comey said in April. “But it’s really important that all of us remember this is not who we are as a country. This is not how our Department of Justice is supposed to be. And the good news is, we get closer every day to restoring those values. Keep the faith.”
Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss, an Obama appointee, ordered the National Park Service not to interfere with the liberal organization Accountability NOW USA’s display of an “86-47” flag at its ongoing permitted demonstration near the National Mall.
“The Court does not doubt that political violence is on the rise and that it poses a grave threat not just to the targets of the threats but to the country as a whole. But the enormity of that problem does not change the meaning of Plaintiff’s speech, which by any reasonable measure merely advocated for the President’s impeachment and removal from office — that is, ‘to throw [him] out,’” Moss wrote.
