One of two brothers who became social media sensations thanks to their online baiting of President Donald Trump found out it went too far yesterday after echoing a veiled threat against the president.
Ed Krassenstein — who, along with his brother Brian, became Twitter sensations for their near-immediate responses to any of Trump’s tweets during his first presidency — reportedly had Secret Service agents visit his home Friday after repeatedly defending former FBI Director James Comey’s controversial “86 47” Instagram post on his social media accounts.
Comey is currently under investigation after the Instagram post, in which he featured a “cool shell formation on my beach walk.”
Just James Comey causally calling for my dad to be murdered.
This is who the Dem-Media worships. Demented!!!! pic.twitter.com/4LUK6crHAT
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) May 15, 2025
Given that the phrase has been used by far-left protesters and there’s little to no chance that Trump is removed from office via impeachment or the 25th Amendment, such a meme could be interpreted as inciting violence, which is why Comey removed it and apologized — and is under investigation anyhow.
“I posted a picture earlier of some shells I saw on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message,” Comey said in a subsequent post. “I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence. It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.”
Krassenstein, however, felt the need to get behind this and kept his posts up, saying that “James Comey is right” and that “8647 is the way to go!”
“It should become the new rallying call for Americans who are sick and tired of the US Constitution being torn up,” he said in an X post.
Should Ed Krassenstein have been investigated by the Secret Service?
“It should be a rallying call for Americans who are fed up with the current administration’s corruption. The right wants it to be some nefarious symbol just they they wanted Abrego Garcia’s tattoos to be. They want to demonize anyone who thinks Trump is toxic for this country. 8647 = Get Trump out of Office! It has nothing to do with violence. COPE!”
James Comey is right
8647 is the way to go!
It should become the new rallying call for Americans who are sick and tired of the US Constitution being torn up.
It should be a rallying call for Americans who are fed up with the current administration’s corruption.
The right… https://t.co/9a6BiczLYu
— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) May 15, 2025
Things moved quickly from there.
I literally just had the Secret Service at my house. More details in a minute.
— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) May 16, 2025
Krassenstein went on to explain the visit in a TikTok video, saying that the Secret Service was friendly but noting that they were following up on orders from Washington — an intimation, perhaps, that this was intimidation.
@krassenstein The Trump administration just sent the Secret Service to my house for tweeting 8647 #breakingnews #trump #democrats ♬ original sound – Brian and Ed Krassenstein
He also posted video to X to prove the encounter happened after some had questioned the credibility of the claim.
To all of the Trump supporters who want to pretend this isn’t happening and I’m making this up. Here is the video.
They called me at my gate in my neighborhood. I thought it was a hoax because I figured they would have been able to get into the gate, so I walked over to make… pic.twitter.com/3bsHhRGdTu
— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) May 17, 2025
“Let me be crystal clear: ’86’ is well-known restaurant slang for removing something. ’47’ refers to Trump as the 47th president. Put together, it means: remove Trump from office—legally, peacefully, and through democratic means like impeachment or the 25th Amendment,” he said in a Substack post.
“They know what it really means. But truth isn’t what they’re after—control through fear is.”
It’s worth noting, however, that no active movement to impeach Trump currently exists and the Democratic Party explicitly dissuaded the one member of its caucus looking to force a quixotic vote on the issue, Michigan Rep. Shri Thanedar, to back off.
The Krassenstein brothers have almost 2 million combined followers on X alone, and their quick responses to Trump’s tweets — which helped them appear directly underneath them in the comments section — had led them to become dubbed the “resistance bros” by some.
At their apex, the duo even branched out to other forms of anti-Trump media, operating a liberal website called Hill Reporter and penning a children’s book titled “How the People Trumped Ronald Plump.”
However, in May of 2019, the brothers were banned from the platform for falsely amplifying their reach, the company said. A spokesperson told The Daily Beast that the company wouldn’t allow prominent users who were “operating multiple fake accounts and purchasing account interactions.”
The brothers returned to the platform in 2022 following Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter. The brothers have repeatedly complained of reduced engagement and earnings from the platform since their reinstatement, however.
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