Peanut the Squirrel (AKA P'nut) was just the cutest little squirrel you ever saw.
But last Wednesday, things took a dark turn when some 12 DEC officers broke into the home in which he was living, without a search warrant, kidnapped him and then euthanised him to "test for rabies".
All this would have just been a tragic story for his caretaker Mark Longo and Longo's wife, and nothing more, but Elon Musk stepped in and everything blew up.
“Mindless and heartless killing machine” is how Musk described the government in response to the kidnap/murder, taking to his platform, X, to express his outrage (as reported by MSNBC).
In a series of posts on X, he slammed the government for what he called 'overreach'.
"Government overreach kidnapped an orphan squirrel and executed him. The government should leave people and their animals alone,” he said.
He went on to spend most of the day commenting on the issue, likening it to the revenge-driven plot of the John Wick movies.
“John Wick just wanted peace, but then [they] killed his innocent, beloved dog,” he wrote, drawing a parallel between the fictional character's loss and the squirrel's fate.
He also said that Trump would take care of the squirrels.
"The death of Peanut the Squirrel quickly became a rallying point for former President Trump's supporters on X, where they shared AI-generated memes of the critter donning MAGA hats, aiming AR-15s, and perched on Trump’s shoulder" as reported on India Today.
And then Trump's son, Donald Jr. chimed in too.
Both Musk and Don Junior have huge audiences on social media, so something that may have been ignored, went viral.
Trump called the world's attention to the fact that this (kidnapping and murdering squirrels) is what the Republicans are busying themselves with, just days before the election. And quite honestly, he makes a damn fine point.
RIP Peanut the Squirrel, and best of luck to Donald Trump.
