Does a photo show a real Massachusetts license plate that reads "5TAB 47"? Yes, that's true: The Massachusetts Department of Transportation told Lead Stories that it is "an existing Massachusetts passenger plate," is not a vanity plate and was "randomly assigned." Some people have interpreted "5TAB 47" as "Stab 47," a threat to kill Donald Trump, the 47th president of the United States.
The claim appeared in a post and image (archived here) by the @Milajoy account on X on Aug. 2, 2026. It read:
Check out this license plate.
Massachusetts is a leftist state, but still.
It should be REVOKED at once.
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @Milajoy on X.)
In an Aug. 3, 2026, email, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation responded to a Lead Stories request on the status of the license plate. The statement said:
Thank you for your inquiry. To clarify, this is a randomly assigned passenger plate and is not a vanity plate.
The combination was automatically generated and is an existing Massachusetts passenger plate.
If the license plate shown in the image had been requested as a vanity plate rather than "randomly assigned," it would have been refused. The "Request a Vanity License Plate" page (archived here) on the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles website spells out the criteria for getting one. The plate shown in the image does not meet them. The qualifications begin with:
All vanity plates must begin with 2 letters. The plate can be no more than 6 characters, or a maximum of 5 characters for motorcycle plates. Vanity plates cannot have letters and numbers intermixed.
Additional qualifications include the following: Massachusetts vanity plates must be approved by the Special Plates Department. Numbers cannot appear in the middle of a plate; they must come at the end, and the first number cannot be 0. Plates cannot contain spaces, periods or punctuation, duplicate an existing plate, use vulgar or obscene language, refer to sex, encourage violence or criminal activity, or express hate, contempt or ridicule toward a person or group.
The plate "5TAB 47" would have violated the Massachusetts vanity-plate rules in at least two clear ways and possibly a third:
- It starts with a number. Massachusetts says numbers must appear only at the end of a vanity plate. "5TAB 47" begins with 5, so it fails that requirement immediately.
- It also contains a space. The rules say spaces are not allowed on vanity plates. "5TAB 47" contains a space between "5TAB" and "47."
- There is also a potential issue with the "5TAB" as "Stab" interpretation. If the plate were reviewed as expressing a threat of violence, it could potentially violate the rule prohibiting expressions that could provoke violence.
None of these rules came into play, however, because the plate was randomly generated.
