Billionaire X owner Elon Musk has become one of former president Donald Trump’s most important backers. Since Musk endorsed Trump in July, he has pulled out all the stops to support his candidacy. Musk has donated more than $100 million to his Trump-supporting America PAC; he criss-crossed the swing state of Pennsylvania holding town halls; he’s spoken at Trump rallies in Butler, Pennsylvania, and New York City; hosted Trump for an interview on X; and put the full weight of the social media platform he owns behind Trump’s presidential bid.
But with mere days to go before the polls open, Musk spent the weekend posting on X mostly about a squirrel.
Specifically, Peanut, an orphaned pet squirrel adopted by Mark Longo, a resident of New York state. Videos of Longo with Peanut garnered hundreds of thousands of views on TikTok and Instagram. Longo also had adopted a pet raccoon named Fred. But on October 30, according to the Associated Press, local government officials responded to anonymous complaints about the animals, and both were euthanized after the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) removed them from Longo’s home.
“On Oct. 30, DEC seized a raccoon and squirrel sharing a residence with humans, creating the potential for human exposure to rabies. In addition, a person involved with the investigation was bitten by the squirrel,” the DEC said in a statement. “To test for rabies, both animals were euthanized.”
Longo posted about the incident on Instagram, and it gained steam on social media over the weekend. A GoFundMe for Longo entitled “Call for Justice for Peanut the Squirrel and NYSDEC Reform” has currently raised more than $150,000.
Musk seized on the story, posting or reposting about the incident on X at least 20 times between Saturday and Sunday, framing it as an example of government overreach, particularly by Democratic party-run governments.
“The government should not be allowed to barge into your house and kill your pet! That’s messed up,” Musk said in one post that garnered 23.7 million views. “Even if it is illegal to have a pet squirrel (which it shouldn’t be), why kill PNut instead of simply releasing him into the forest!?” In another, which racked up more than 35 million views, he asked, “why is the Democratic Party so cruel?”
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