A Trump official has admitted that those behind the cryptic “8647” message on the National Mall are likely home free.
President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard to the D.C. landmark last month after the numbers “8647,” which have become a rallying cry for critics of the president, appeared in giant lettering on the grass.
The Trump administration was quick to vow to bring whoever was behind the numbers to justice.
“The deranged vandalism on our National Mall will not be tolerated,” an Interior Department spokesperson told the Daily Beast at the time. “Any threat against the president is taken very seriously by the Department, and our U.S. Park Police will investigate this incident and hold those responsible accountable.”
Trump, 80, threatened in a Truth Social post that a “10-year prison sentence for the destruction, or even the attempted destruction, of such things,” and that it will be “fully enforced!”
But Interior Secretary Doug Borgum appeared to admit Tuesday that, despite all the bluster, the administration’s search for the culprits has stalled.
“Do we know who mowed the 8647 into the field?” Katie Miller asked Borgum during his appearance on her podcast.
“They didn’t mow it. They used chemicals to kill the grass, which was again a form of vandalism,” the former North Dakota governor said.
He continued, “And, uh, we did not have cameras on that either. They came during the night and, umm, unfortunately, that one is going to remain a mystery.”
Miller, the wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, did not inquire further and moved on to ask her next question, “Would you rather race George Washington on horseback or have Abraham Lincoln as your partner in a three-legged race?”
The string of numbers first sparked a firestorm in May last year, when former FBI Director James Comey posted an image of seashells forming the numbers 8647.
“Cool shell formation on my beach walk,” he wrote in the caption of his now-deleted Instagram post.
MAGAworld was up in arms over the post, with the Secret Service ominously announcing that it would “vigorously investigate anything that can be taken as a potential threat against our protectees.”
The post was cited in an indictment of Comey as part of the DOJ’s revenge plots against Trump’s political foes. When the initial indictment got tossed out by a judge, the Justice Department scrambled to indict Comey a second time. The former FBI chief has consistently maintained innocence.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss, an Obama appointee, allowed the liberal organization Accountability NOW USA to display an “86-47” flag at its demonstration near the National Mall. In his order, the judge cited the First Amendment and said the sequence of numbers “is not a true threat to the President or incitement of violence.”
The Interior Department and the U.S. Park Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
