- The claim that Republicans sold merchandise reading "86 46" — using "86" as slang for getting rid of someone and "46" as a reference to former U.S. President Joe Biden — is unproven.
- The rumor stems from social media discussions following the 2026 indictment of former FBI Director James Comey on charges that he issued a threat to kill or harm President Donald Trump. The alleged threat was a 2025 Instagram post showing seashells arranged to read "86 47" that Comey shared and then removed on or around May 15, 2025.
- Snopes did not find "86 46" branded merchandise on the official GOP store, the Trump Organization's online store or the MAGA Mall, a company that makes merchandise for Republican parties, conservative organizations and retailers. We did find "86 46" branded merchandise for sale on large online marketplaces, though these largely did not appear to be affiliated with the Republican Party or sold by Republicans.
- Because we could not reasonably view and verify political party membership for every "86 46" branded merchandise seller on the internet, we have left this claim unrated. Snopes will update this report if additional information surfaces.
In April and May 2026, social media users discussing the Department of Justice's indictment of the former FBI Director James Comey claimed Republicans had issued similar threats toward former U.S. President Joe Biden.
Comey's charges stemmed from a 2025 Instagram post showing seashells arranged to read "86 47" that he shared and removed on or around May 15, 2025. The number 86 is slang for "to get rid of." (Trump's two nonconsecutive terms mean he is both the 45th and 47th president.) In its indictment, the DOJ claimed the post constituted a threat to kill or harm Trump.
After the DOJ published the indictment, social media users claimed (archived) Republicans had once sold merchandise reading "86 46," using "46" as a reference to then-President Joe Biden.
One Threads user wrote, "Just a reminder that republicans sold 8646 merch for four years."
Similar claims also circulated on other social media platforms, where users accused Republicans in general or President Donald Trump specifically of selling "86 46" branded merch (archived, archived, archived, archived). Snopes readers wrote in asking about the claim.
Snopes research did not find "86 46" branded merchandise on the official GOP store, The Trump Organization's online store or the MAGA Mall, a company that makes merchandise for Republican parties, conservative organizations and retailers across the U.S.
Wider online searches on May 1, 2026, revealed a variety of "86 46" branded merchandise for sale on online marketplaces such as Redbubble, Etsy and Amazon. These did not appear to be official Republican storefronts.
Snopes could not confirm when the respective sellers listed the items we viewed in our searches, meaning it was unclear whether they were online during Biden's presidency or put up for sale more recently.
Because we could not reasonably view and verify political party membership for every "86 46" branded merchandise seller on the internet, we have left this claim unrated.
We contacted the GOP store, Trump's online store and the MAGA Mall to ask whether they ever sold "86 46" merchandise. We also contacted Redbubble, Etsy and Amazon to ask whether they would remove or more closely monitor "86 46" or "86 47" branded merchandise from their platforms following Comey's indictment. We await replies to our queries.
Inspecting '86 46' merch
According to Snopes' research, many of the popular online stores selling "86 46" branded merchandise did not appear to have a specific political affiliation.
Snopes searched "86 46" on Redbubble, Etsy and Amazon and noted the top five "best selling" (Redbubble and Amazon) or "top reviewed" (Etsy) merchandise items with "86 46" branding.
Of the 15 sellers Snopes looked at, only one publicly claimed to be a Republican. Snopes contacted the store owner to ask if they were a registered Republican or whether their store was in any way associated with the Republican Party and await a reply. The user removed the item (archived) Snopes asked about, an "86 46" decal, after we contacted them.
Seven of the 15 stores that sold "86 46" branded merch also sold anti-Trump merch, suggesting their owners did not ally themselves with either Democrat or Republican politics or figures.
For example, one store sold both "86 46" and "86 47" merchandise. Another sold a T-shirt under the title "86 46 Impeach Biden" (the shirt did not include the "86") as well as a T-shirt that read "F*** Trump."
We could not tell when the respective sellers listed the items we viewed in our searches, meaning it was unclear whether they were online during Biden's presidency or more recently.
As mentioned above, Snopes could not reasonably view and assess the political affiliation of every "86 46" merchandise seller on the internet. Our small-scale study is meant only to illustrate the types of stores that sell popular "86 46" merchandise.
Posobiec: '86 46' meant impeach Biden
At the time of this writing, there was no indication the DOJ would prosecute people who sold, bought or publicly displayed "86 46" branded merchandise, though some social media users argued that this should be the case given the action the department took against Comey.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said (at 2:32) with respect to a 2022 X post by the conservative influencer Jack Posobiec reading "86 46" that "you cannot compare, well, what happened last time, what happened this time. Every investigation is different."
Posobiec himself said on his podcast, "Human Events Daily," that "86 46" was a reference to impeaching, not killing or hurting, Biden. He said (at 3:34):
As everyone on the "Human Events" audience remembers, in 2021 and 2022 we did a series called "The Shade War Updates," and it was all about whether or not Kamala Harris would launch the 25th Amendment on Joe Biden. Every conservative was talking about "25th Amendment on Biden" or "impeaching Biden." That was the context.
Posobiec posted on X about "Shade War Updates" in late 2021 and early 2022 (archived, archived), around the time he made the "86 46" post.
Nine of the 15 "86 46" branded merchandise items we viewed included "impeach" in the item's title. It was unclear when sellers first listed those items.
Comey had not entered a plea at the time of this writing. The April 2026 indictment of the former FBI director was the second by the second Trump administration. A federal judge dismissed a previous indictment, finding that the Trump administration illegally appointed Lindsay Halligan, the prosecutor who brought the charges.
That September 2025 indictment claimed Comey had made a false statement to Congress and obstructed a congressional proceeding during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing about the FBI's investigation of links between Russia and the 2016 Trump presidential campaign.
At the time of this writing, it did not appear that Posobiec faced charges over his 2022 X post. Neither did Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who in 2020 did a TV interview with a pin reading "8645" in the background. Trump was at that time the 45th U.S. president.
It was unclear where Whitmer got her pin from. Online searches in early May 2026 found that there was still a variety of "86 45" branded merchandise available online, though this did not appear to come from official Democrat-affiliated stores. (In the same way as "86 46" merchandise on online marketplaces, Snopes could not reasonably verify the political affiliation of all sellers.)
When asked whether the DOJ would investigate Whitmer, Blanche again said that every investigation was different.
For further reading, Snopes has previously reported on other claims about Comey.
Sources:
Human Events Daily with Jack Posobiec. 'JAMES COMEY INDICTED Amidst Leftist Assassination Culture SURGE'. Rumble, 29 Apr. 2026, https://rumble.com/v79639a-human-events-daily-with-jack-posobiec.html.
'ABOUT US'. The MAGA Mall, https://www.themagamall.com/about-us. Accessed 1 May 2026.
CBS Mornings. 'Acting AG Blanche Addresses Comey Indictment, Says Trump Didn't Direct Him to Pursue It'. YouTube, 29 Apr. 2026, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxuooZxirYE&t=152s.
'Indictment – #1 in United States v. Comey (E.D. Va., 1:25-Cr-00272) – CourtListener.Com'. CourtListener, https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/71459121/1/united-states-v-comey/. Accessed 1 May 2026.
'Indictment – #1 in United States v. Comey (E.D.N.C., 4:26-Cr-00016) – CourtListener.Com'. CourtListener, https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73256624/1/united-states-v-comey/. Accessed 1 May 2026.
'Shop'. Official GOP Store, https://shop.gop.com/. Accessed 1 May 2026.
Trumpstore.Com | The Official Retail Website of the Trump Organization. https://www.trumpstore.com/. Accessed 1 May 2026.
TUCKER, ERIC. 'Judge Dismisses Comey, James Indictments after Finding That Prosecutor Was Illegally Appointed'. AP News, 24 Nov. 2025, https://apnews.com/article/comey-james-justice-department-5ec1a59d152bc1fd000ade15e20745b5.
