President Donald Trump has launched an explosive verbal attack on James Comey as he accused the former FBI director of calling for him to be assassinated. 

The extraordinary row came after Comey posted, and then quickly removed, a photograph of an assortment of seashells arranged to display the numbers ’86 47.’

Trump said his own former FBI chief knew ‘exactly’ what it meant when he published the image on his Instagram account. 

The number 86 is slang for ‘getting rid of’ or ‘taking out’ and Trump is the 47th president, leading many to interpret it as a coded call to kill the commander in chief.

‘He knew exactly what that meant,’ Trump told Fox News’ Bret Baier in an interview conducted before he left the Middle East after a four-day tour.  ‘A child knows what that meant.’

Trump added: ‘That meant assassination. And it says it loud and clear. Now, he wasn’t very competent, but he was competent enough to know what that meant.

‘And he did it for a reason, and he was hit so hard because people like me, they like what’s happening with our country. Our country has become respected again and all this, and he’s calling for the assassination of the president.’

Comey issued a statement insisting he was unaware of the implications of his post.

‘I posted a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message,’ he wrote.

‘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.’ 

Trump shrugged off Comey’s apology.

He said he would let Attorney General Pam Bondi decide any legal steps against Comey. 

‘I don’t want to take a position on it, because that’s going to be up to Pam and all of the great people,’ Trump said. 

‘But I will say this, I think it’s a terrible thing. And when you add his history to that. If he had a plain history – he doesn’t, he’s a dirty cop, he’s a dirty cop – and if he had a clean history, I could understand if there was a leniency. But I’m going to let them make that decision.’

Trump’s full Fox News interview with Bret Baier will air Friday evening at 6 pm ET on Special Report.

Republicans were outraged over the post. 

Donald Trump Jr. slammed Comey as he accused the former FBI director of calling for his father’s death.

‘Just James Comey causally calling for my dad to be murdered,’ he wrote on X. ‘This is who the Dem-Media worships. Demented!!!!’

‘James Comey is vile,’ he wrote in a second post.  

Trump was targeted in two separate attempts by assassins during the 2024 presidential campaign.  

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said she would investigate the post as a threat to the president. 

‘Disgraced former FBI Director James Comey just called for the assassination of President Trump,’ she wrote on X. 

‘DHS and Secret Service is investigating this threat and will respond appropriately.’

Many commentators questioned how a former FBI director could not know the meaning of ’86.’

‘That is a ridiculous and insane statement to make. Coming from a guy who is the former director of the FBI,’ Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said of Comey’s explanation.

‘For Comey to think that we the American people, that he as a former FBI director, former prosecutor, would believe his lie that he didn’t know what this was calling for. The dangerousness of this cannot be understated.’

Others questioned his argument that he simply stumbled upon the shells already in that formation on a beach, then chose to take and photograph without fully understanding what it meant.

Gabbard argued that Comey’s status as a former figure of authority meant his message put Trump at further risk and could have been interpreted as a call to arms. 

‘I’m very concerned for the President’s life, and James Comey, in my view, should be held accountable and put behind bars for this,’ she said.

Supporters of Comey argue the ’86’ slang simply means to ‘throw out’, ‘veto’, or ‘discard’, and that the message in the sand simply means Trump should be impeached.’

They note a similar phrase – ’86 46′ – was used on merchandise by Republicans rallying against 46th President Joe Biden.

Comey served as the director of the FBI from 2013 until he was fired by Trump in 2017, during his first term.

In response, Comey arranged for memos from a private meeting he had previously had with Trump to be leaked to the press.

Following the decision to terminate him, Comey sent out an email to staff which read: ‘I have long believed that a president can fire an FBI director for any reason, or for no reason at all. 

‘I’m not going to spend time on the decision or the way it was executed. I hope you won’t either. It is done, and I will be fine, although I will miss you and the mission deeply.’

Comey became a subject of controversy during the 2016 election when he re-opened an investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server when she was secretary of state.

Clinton was the Democratic nominee at the time and eventually lost the race to Trump.

Many Democrats blamed Comey for her defeat.