U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt is going after Kirkwood School District Board President Judy Moticka, accusing her of effectively calling for the assassination of President Donald Trump after she shared a Facebook post featuring the number sequence “8647.” What started as a screen grab from a private account quickly escaped the Kirkwood bubble and kicked off a fresh round of online political crossfire.
What Schmitt Shared
On June 1, Schmitt posted a screenshot of Moticka’s Facebook post on X and claimed she was endorsing violence. As reported by First Alert 4, his post was rapidly amplified by conservative accounts, turning a local school board figure into the latest target in a national fight over political speech. Schmitt framed the image as evidence of an “assassination culture,” helping propel the flap far beyond Kirkwood.
Moticka's Post and Clarification
Moticka’s original Facebook message, dated May 18, marked the end of Stephen Colbert’s run and tacked on the digits “8647.” She later updated the post to spell out her intent and to say she was “rejecting violence in any form.” Moticka told First Alert 4 that the message came from her personal account, not in any official capacity as board president, and stressed that it was not meant as a call to harm Trump.
Why "8647" Drew Fire
The four digits are not random in today’s political shorthand. “86” is service-industry slang for getting rid of something, while “47” is widely read as a reference to Trump potentially becoming the 47th president. Together, critics argue, “8647” can be interpreted as a call to remove or even kill Trump. NPR has traced how the phrase spread across social media, and the controversy has already had real-world consequences; former FBI Director James Comey was indicted in April 2026 over a seashell post that used the same numbers, according to PBS NewsHour.
District Response and Local Context
The Kirkwood School District identifies Moticka as its board president and emphasizes that its mission is serving students, not refereeing national political memes. The district handbook outlines how board members are elected representatives and explains how residents can address the board during public meetings, including when they want to weigh in on a controversy like this one. It also lists when regular meetings are held and how public comment works, information that has suddenly become more relevant for parents and residents now scrolling through viral posts. Those procedures are detailed in the Kirkwood School District handbook.
Moticka maintains that she clarified her post and rejected violence. At this point, the situation remains a heated political dust-up rather than a formal school board discipline case. The episode shows how a few digits typed on a private social media page can catapult a local official into the center of a national firestorm.
