Look! squirrel! Trump's MAGA cultists go nuts over the euthanization of pet squirrel

Look, squirrel!

So what are Donald Trump’s MAGA cultists obsessing over on the eve of the presidential election? It’s a decision by New York state wildlife officials to euthanize a pet squirrel named Peanut (aka P’Nut), who had a huge following on social media.

The story was something that “pet savior” GOP Vice Presidential candidate.JD Vance could not resist. Only this time it wasn’t a baseless story about Haitian immigrants eating cats in Springfield, Ohio.

On Sunday, Vance told a crowd at a campaign rally in Sanford, North Carolina:

“I know Don’s fired up about P’nut the Squirrel. … He was like, ‘You know, is it really the case that the Democrats murdered the Elon Musk of squirrels?’

"The same government that doesn't care about hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrant criminals coming into our country, doesn't want us to have pets, The craziest thing."

On Sunday, Musk posted to millions of followers on his X social media account: "Vote For PNut! For Liberty! For Freedom!" And on Monday, Musk went on Joe Rogan’s podcast and said: “I hope people just go out there and vote for P’nut man. Nothing else.”

There’s lots of confusion about what happened last Wednesday when New York state officials seized Peanut and a raccoon named Fred from the home of Mark Longo in Pine City, New York. Longo said he was devastated when both animals were later euthanized.

Newsweek wrote:

The two animals were featured on the @peanut_the_squirrel12, which currently has 692,000 followers. Longo had cared for Peanut for seven years after he rescued the squirrel after witnessing its mother being struck by a car in New York City. Longo's Instagram page includes videos of the squirrel doing tricks.

Newsweek added:

On Friday, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), a part of the state's government, and Chemung County Department of Health told Newsweek that on October 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. To test for rabies, both animals were euthanized. The animals are being tested for rabies and anyone who has been in contact with these animals is strongly encouraged to consult their physician."

They added: "The Chemung County Department of Health and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) are coordinating to ensure the protection of public health related to the illegal possession of wild animals that have the potential to carry the rabies virus."

And Longo appeared on TV news reports to complain that authorities used excessive force when they came to his farm. Then the local congressman, Republican Rep. Nick Langworthy used the incident to attack New York’s Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul for having “misguided priorities.”

"In New York State, we have sanctuaries for illegal immigrants while innocent pets are killed," Langworthy wrote on X.

Longo has since threatened to take legal action. And he launched a GoFundMe campaign that has raised about $187,000 for P’nuts Freedom Farm, which he describes as a non-profit animal sanctuary.

And then the story took a bizarre turn when it turned out that Longo’s Instagram page for Peanut was also driving traffic to his very lucrative OnlyFans page, where his handle is Squirrel Daddy. Longo and his wife said they bought their farm in New York with the $800,000 that they made from posting porn online in one month. And Squirrel Daddy is known for gay porn videos.

That all came out when Longo was interviewed on TMZ. 

But that hasn’t stopped Trump’s MAGA cult from using Longo’s case to accuse Democrats of governmental overreach. Some Trump supporters have doxxed a woman they claim filed the complaint that led authorities to raid Longo’s home.

And there has been a spate of AI-generated images.