How Peanut the squirrel became a right-wing icon

Since Donald Trump reclaimed the White House on Wednesday, many have wondered how helpful celebrity endorsements were this time around, especially for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. But there’s one celebrity whose influence no one is questioning: Peanut the squirrel. The social media icon became a right-wing martyr – a bushy-tailed hero whose sudden “murder by the government” had conservative supporters such as Elon Musk posting squirrel pics on social media and framing Republican votes as “justice” for Peanut and the American public.

Peanut the squirrel may be dead, but he’s still making waves in right-wing American circles. Credit: AP Peanut, also known as P’Nut by his 866,000 Instagram followers , had been living in the small town of Pine City, New York, for about seven years with OnlyFans model Mark Longo, 34, and a raccoon named Fred. Peanut’s Instagram shows him leaping onto Longo’s shoulder, wearing a miniature cowboy hat, and eating a waffle while wearing crocheted bunny ears.

Longo has been running an animal sanctuary with his wife, Daniela, and other family members since April 2023. He said he was in the process of filing paperwork to get Peanut certified as an educational animal. But authorities had received multiple reports of “unsafe housing of wildlife” at Longo’s home and New York state law doesn’t allow squirrels or raccoons to be kept as pets.

On October 30, when investigating officers from the Department of Environmental Cons.