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Trump Campaign Mocked for Claiming Item on MI Governor's Desk Was Secret Call for Trump's Assassination
NBC // Peter Zay/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Since following expert guidelines on the ways to curb the virus in her state, Michigan's Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer has been a favorite target of President Donald Trump.

When anti-lockdown protesters stormed the Michigan statehouse and demonstrated in front of Whitmer's home, Trump tweeted to "LIBERATE MICHIGAN."

Weeks later, state and federal officials arrested multiple people for a plot to kidnap Whitmer—a motivation seen as exacerbated by Trump's frequent vilification of the governor.

But now the Trump campaign is chastising Whitmer for what it believes is a call to violence against Trump, indicated by an innocuous item displayed on her desk during a television interview.

Whitmer's desk featured a small "86 45" button.

The term "86" is often used in the service industry for food and drink options that run out. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the slang term means "to eject or debar from premises; to reject or abandon."

The Trump campaign, however, said the term "86" means murder, and that Whitmer was calling for Trump's assassination.

The campaign posted a definition from the crowdsourced site urbandictionary.com, which claimed the term originated from driving someone 80 miles from civilization and burying them six feet under.

That didn't stand up to scrutiny.



The campaign didn't generate the controversy it hoped, but instead underwent widespread mockery.




Others accused the Trump campaign of further endangering Whitmer by feeding delusions.