The number 8647 is back in the news again, and this time it’s because filmmaker Morgan J. Freeman posted it on X and afterwards allegedly got a courtesy visit from the FBI, who came to his home with printouts of his post and refused to show him their badge numbers to ask him about Donald Trump.
Morgan J. Freeman, not to be confused with seasoned Academy Award–winning actor Morgan Freeman, made his name in the late 1990s by giving Kate Hudson her film debut in Desert Blue. Since then, Freeman has focused more on directing TV shows and reality TV — and his other passion has been to make his voice heard by critiquing Trump’s position on Medicare and his multiple callous remarks he’s made since he ascended back to power.
This time, however, Freeman took to X to notify the public that he had just been visited by the FBI in what he referred to as “intimidation.” As is increasingly the trend, Freeman asked their wildly inconsistent in-house AI chatbot, Grok, whether simply writing 8647 was enough of a reason for the FBI to come to his home.
Hey @grok — what do you think about @FBIDirectorKash sending the @FBI to my house to intimidate me because I’m critical of Trump?
— Morgan J. Freeman (@mjfree) August 12, 2025
And they wouldn’t let my girlfriend take a picture of their badges.
They had printouts of my posts.
Freeman added context that ever since James Comey posted on Instagram with the ominous number, the FBI allegedly now sees that as a threat toward Trump’s life. Freeman insisted that for him, 8647 simply means “KICK OUT DONALD TRUMP” and that he in no way meant that the president should be assassinated.
I posted 8647 which means KICK OUT DONALD TRUMP but the FBI says that since James @Comey posted that, it now means to assassinate the president — which is not true.
— Morgan J. Freeman (@mjfree) August 12, 2025
The number grew to infamy when former FBI Director James Comey posted an arrangement of shells on a beach that read 8647. 86 is slang that mostly still gets used in the hospitality industry and means “get rid of.” It’s when a guest has been acting belligerent for one reason or another, and you need to eject him so that you can get back to business. 47, of course, means the 47th president of the United States.
Perhaps it’s a case of being overly cautious, or perhaps it has something to do with Trump’s assassination attempt; but since then the Trump administration has registered that term as a threat toward the president’s life. When Comey first posted the image, the Homeland Security Secretary announced that she planned on investigating Comey and treating the post as a threat. But enough time has passed, and most people simply consider it as one of the many nothing burgers that have been created during Trump’s second term.
Grok informed Freeman that his comment with the number should be protected under the First Amendment. The AI chatbot did make the argument that in some contexts the 86 number is used as slang for killing, but that would probably be the case when members of the underworld or crime world are involved.
Freeman was more interested to know if anyone else has posted that number and got a visit from the FBI, but so far, there have not been any other reports. Freeman has been criticizing the president mostly for not following the Constitution in his actions, and it’s very unlikely that his solution to that would be encouraging an assassination. He argued that if they did have justified reasons to look into him, then he should also be allowed to scrutinize them by checking their badges. It seems only rational in a trip where clarification was the main agenda.
