Elon Musk Has Spent the Final Days Before the Election Posting About Peanut the Squirrel

November 4, 2024:

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?”

Other members of Musk’s wealthy right-wing Trump supporters followed suit. Shaun Maguire, a partner at the venture capital firm Sequoia, shared a TMZ interview with Longo, saying, “Blue states seem to care more about euthanizing squirrels than arresting burglars and drug dealers.” Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman also reposted about Peanut, showing an AI-generated image of multiple squirrels armed with AK-47s walking alongside Trump, also sporting the same gun. Even the X account for the Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee joined in, posting “Justice for Peanut.”

Musk’s own pro-Trump PAC posted, “Is it too much to ask for to have a government that focuses on defending the rights of Americans instead of raiding homes to euthanize their animals?”

Dispersed among the Peanut-related posts, Musk continued to share other content about the election, including an insinuation that NBC had violated US Federal Trade Commission rules around offering equal time to opposing candidates by hosting Kamala Harris as a guest on Saturday Night Live. (NBC ran a one-minute video of Trump following Nascar and Sunday Night Football to ensure the two candidates were offered equal time on the network.) Musk also continued to share false claims that unauthorized migrants would be allowed to vote, as well as several posts taking digs at legacy media.

At one point, he advertised his last two town halls, which will be hosted on X before the polls close on November 5. It was a strange comedown for the billionaire, who has seemingly made Trump’s reelection campaign his priority for the past month.

But on Sunday night, a new pinned post appeared at the top of Musk’s X page: “Vote For PNut! For Liberty! For Freedom!”

You can follow all of WIRED’s 2024 presidential election coverage here.

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