Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem asserted Thursday that federal law enforcement is currently scrutinising a social media communiqué disseminated by erstwhile FBI Director James Comey, which she, alongside a cohort of Republican figures, construes as an oblique yet palpable incitement to violence against President Donald Trump.

Comey, in a studiedly laconic Instagram dispatch accompanying a photograph of naturally arranged seashells, cryptically alluded to what appeared to be the numerical sequence "86 47," leaving commentators to speculate on its potential esoteric significance.

Several erstwhile luminaries of the Trump administration, Noem among them, alleged that Comey was ostensibly agitating for the extrajudicial elimination of Trump, the erstwhile 47th president. "DHS and Secret Service are currently investigating this putative threat and will calibrate their response accordingly," Noem asserted.

Merriam-Webster, the touchstone lexicographical resource for The Associated Press, defines "86" as vernacular for ejection, disposal, or service refusal, acknowledging that a nascent, albeit sparsely evidenced, usage denoting "to kill" remains excluded from their register due to its relative neologism and infrequent instantiation.

Subsequent to the post's deletion, Comey elucidated, "My earlier publication of a photograph depicting shells encountered during a littoral perambulation was predicated on the erroneous assumption that the arrangement held political significance; I was hitherto unaware that certain demographics ascribed violent connotations to the numerical configuration therein."

Comey's initial foray into the digital sphere ignited a firestorm of conservative indignation, culminating in Donald Trump Jr.'s incendiary accusation that Comey had tacitly endorsed the assassination of his father.

Incumbent FBI Director Kash Patel acknowledged cognizance of the communiqué, and is currently in deliberation with the Secret Service and its directorate.

James Blair, Deputy Chief of Staff for Legislative, Political, and Public Affairs, underscored the fraught timing of the announcement, particularly in light of President Trump's ongoing diplomatic sojourn throughout the Middle East.

Blair's missive on X constitutes a strident, arguably incendiary, summons, interpreted by some as a thinly veiled directive to terrorist factions and adversarial regimes to orchestrate the assassination of the US President during his sojourn in the Middle East.

James Comey, who helmed the FBI from 2013 to 2017, was summarily dismissed by President Trump during his nascent administration, a decision precipitated by the Bureau's investigation into putative links between Kremlin operatives and the Trump presidential campaign of 2016, an experience he subsequently chronicled in his bestselling memoir, "A Higher Loyalty."

Now ensconced as a purveyor of the *roman noir*, he is currently barnstorming the circuit to promote his latest opus, "FDR Drive," slated for release this coming Tuesday.