Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced Thursday that federal law enforcement is investigating a social media post by former FBI Director James Comey, which she and other Republican members allege constitutes an incitement to violence against President Donald Trump.

In an Instagram post, Comey quipped, "Exquisite conchoidal architecture observed during my littoral peregrinations," beneath a photograph of seashells seemingly arranged to denote "86 47."

Several Trump administration officials, Noem among them, posited that Comey was insidiously inciting the assassination of Trump, the erstwhile 47th President, prompting Noem to declare, "The Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service are actively investigating this putative threat and will instigate a commensurate response."

Merriam-Webster, the venerable lexicographical resource utilized by The Associated Press, defines "86" as a slang term denoting "to discard," "to eliminate," or "to refuse service." It further elucidates that "one of the more recent semantic extensions of the term, a logical evolution of its established usages, connotes 'to kill,' though this particular denotation remains, as yet, uncited in our compendium due to its relative neologism and infrequent application."

The post was subsequently expunged, prompting Comey to remark that his publication of a photograph depicting several seashells encountered during a beachcombing excursion, intended as apolitical, was misconstrued as a veiled allusion to politically motivated violence, an interpretive leap he confessed to not having anticipated.

Comey's initial post ignited a firestorm of indignation amongst conservative circles on social media, culminating in Donald Trump Jr.'s incendiary accusation that Comey had effectively issued a *de facto* call for patricide.

Kash Patel, the incumbent Director of the FBI, has acknowledged cognizance of said post and is currently in liaison with the Secret Service and its directorate regarding the matter.

James Blair, Deputy Assistant to the President and White House Director of Legislative Affairs, Political Affairs, and Public Liaison, noted the op-ed's inopportune publication amidst a particularly delicate juncture in the President's itinerary, specifically his ongoing diplomatic sojourn in the Middle East.

"Blair's X post articulated this as an unequivocal incitement, emanating from Jim Comey, directed towards terrorist elements and adversarial regimes, to perpetrate the assassination of the U.S. President during his Middle Eastern tour."

James Comey, who helmed the FBI from 2013 to 2017, was peremptorily dismissed by President Trump during his nascent term, amidst the Bureau's probe into putative collusion between Russian officials and the Trump 2016 presidential campaign; Comey subsequently chronicled his career in the bestselling memoir, "A Higher Loyalty."

Currently, he is a novelist specialising in the detective fiction genre, and is actively promoting his latest work, "FDR Drive," slated for release on Tuesday.