Scorned by President Donald Trump, former FBI director James Comey turned up in, of all places, Iowa this past weekend. Cue the speculation.

One of Mr Trump's best-known adversaries was seen dining at 801 Chophouse in Des Moines, the must-stop steakhouse for the political elite eyeing the state's quadrennial presidential caucuses.

Mr Comey, who was fired by the President in May, also posed for a photo along a rural farm road with a neatly groomed field and shining stainless steel grain bins as his backdrop, as countless White House aspirants have done before him.

However Mr Comey was not, it appears, taking the fledgling steps of those who would seek the office Mr Trump now holds. He was visiting his in-laws.

Damon Murphy, general manager of 801 Chophouse, said Mr Comey was visiting with his wife Patrice, an Iowa native, whose father was celebrating his 90th birthday.

Mr Murphy said Mr Comey and party "quietly enjoyed their meal".

Twitter had fun as Mr Comey used the pseudonym handle Reinhold Niebuhr, the name of the late American theologian and political critic, to post photos.

One showed him gazing across a rural landscape under a cloud-swept (northern) autumn sky.

The pseudonym was confirmed as Mr Comey by Brookings Institution legal analyst Benjamin Wittes, after months of speculation.

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The tweets also included shots of a silhouetted Mr Comey in a cornfield facing an orange sunset and a flock of white birds identified as "migrating white pelicans in Iowa".

"Goodbye Iowa. On the road home," said the caption of one picture of Mr Comey actually standing on a road.

In introducing the Twitter account, he added, "Gotta get back to writing. Will try to tweet in useful ways," a comment sure to be interpreted as a jab at his prolifically tweeting former boss.

AP