(Adnkronos) –
A gigantic 8647 appearing on the lawns of the National Mall in Washington has alarmed federal authorities two days before the anticipated celebrations on Sunday at the White House for Donald Trump’s 80th birthday. The sequence of numbers imprinted on the lawns, evident in live webcam images of the Washington Monument, is considered a code referring to the assassination of Trump, who is the 47th president, with the number 86 used in American slang to indicate the need to “get rid of” something or someone. And the number has now, in any case, become a symbol of opposition to President Trump.
“Every threat against the president is taken seriously and our US Park Police are investigating and will apprehend those responsible,” declared a spokesperson for the Department of the Interior, which oversees federal parks, announcing investigations into this “crazy” act of vandalism that the White House has already labeled as “political violence.”
The first thing the investigation will have to establish is how those responsible managed to discolor the grass to form the numbers under accusation: “The cause of the discoloration has not yet been determined; samples have been collected for testing,” explained federal park police to NBC News. Meanwhile, a strong stance has already come from the White House: “Anyone who commits or supports political violence or a culture of assassination must be condemned in the strongest terms. They must immediately receive psychiatric support to treat the severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has undermined their brains,” declared presidential spokesperson Davis Ingle.
No statements have, however, come from the District of Columbia prosecutor’s office, which in recent weeks indicted James Comey for sharing a photograph on social media last summer showing shells arranged on the beach to form the number 8647. The former FBI director, a sworn enemy of Trump since the president fired him for initiating the Russiagate investigation, is expected to stand trial next October to answer the charge that he posted an image that is “a serious expression of intent to harm the President of the United States.”
For his part, Comey, who last summer, faced with controversy from right-wing commentators, had deleted the post, declaring himself unrelated to any violent intent, is preparing to ask for the case to be dismissed, arguing that it constitutes a new instance of justice being instrumentalized to satisfy Trump’s vengeful spirit. The former FBI director had previously managed to have earlier charges, this time for perjury, which the Department of Justice had brought against him, dismissed in recent months.
Not to mention that a federal judge last month ruled that the number 8647 cannot be considered a threat, deciding that the flag with these numbers affixed in front of the Washington courthouse should not be removed, in respect of the freedom of expression guaranteed by the First Amendment.
The alarm over the writing that appeared on the Mall’s lawn, which, as CNN observes, was not visible in some aerial photos of the area taken on June 5, coincides with ongoing preparations at the White House for Trump’s 80th birthday celebrations. As is well known, he has decided to celebrate by transforming the South Lawn of the White House garden into a martial arts fighting arena, a huge structure nicknamed ‘The Claw’.
While the UFC Freedom 250 event, expected to attract 100,000 people to the heart of the American capital, is unprecedented in American history, the White House and its gardens have indeed hosted sporting competitions in the past. In particular, President Warren Harding and his wife Florence in 1922 invited six American and international tennis champions for a tournament on the tennis courts that had been built in the White House gardens by Theodore Roosevelt in 1903.
Not only that, Teddy Roosevelt was also a boxing enthusiast who continued to practice in the White House gym before a sports injury: “after a few years I had to give up boxing and wrestling, because in a match a young artillery captain struck me with a counter-attack to the eye, breaking some blood vessels,” the president recounts in his autobiography.
More recently, it should be remembered that Barack Obama had one of the tennis courts transformed into a basketball court, so he could continue training at the White House. In fact, in 1991, a half-basketball court had been built by George Bush Sr., a sporty president who loved to run, play tennis, and swim.
But the 41st president’s true passion was horseshoes, the game involving throwing horseshoes, for which Bush Sr. had a court built in 1989, where he demonstrated his throws for Queen Elizabeth, who, during her 1991 visit to the White House, brought the president four silver horseshoes as a gift. Moving from the exterior to the interior of the White House, the small bowling alley is famous; it was built, at the expense of the state of Missouri, for President Harry Truman’s 63rd birthday, then expanded by Richard Nixon, a great bowling enthusiast.
