Social Media Star 'Peanut The Squirrel' Euthanized, President ...

PARIS, FRANCE - JUNE 16: Chief Executive Officer of SpaceX and Tesla and owner of Twitter, Elon Musk ... [+] attends the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre on June 16, 2023 in Paris, France. Elon Musk is visiting Paris for the VivaTech show where he gives a conference in front of 4,000 technology enthusiasts. He also took the opportunity to meet Bernard Arnaud, CEO of LVMH and the French President. Emmanuel Macron, who has already met Elon Musk twice in recent months, hopes to convince him to set up a Tesla battery factory in France, his pioneer company in electric cars. (Photo by Chesnot/Getty Images)

Peanut The Squirrel may stand as the story of the weekend leading up to the presidential election this Tuesday.

At least, it has led to comments from Elon Musk that reveal just how volatile things have become. And, social media is going a little nuts over it.

Some backstory here: A pet squirrel became a fixation on social media after the owner, Mark Longo, posted heartwarming photos and videos on both Instagram and TikTok. The Peanut the Squirrel account amassed about 559,000 followers on Instagram alone.

According to multiple reports and a post by Longo himself, the pet squirrel was seized by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and euthanized.

Previous social media posts and videos revealed how Longo held a petition to keep Peanut the Squirrel alive, including a GoFundMe account that raised thousands for an animal rescue charity.

Musk was quick to respond, of course. He has become an advocate for free speech and being able to live without government restrictions. Musk posted on his X feed:

The well-known entrepreneur and Trump advocate has posted several more times about the incident, including one Star Wars-related post:

This is exactly the type of story that typifies the election.

What Musk is really saying is that state authorities don’t have the right to seize and euthanize a pet from someone’s home. He’s rallying around Longo because the election this year has become mostly about how much control the government should have.

One thing is obvious: Everyone has an opinion during the election, and they are sharing it on social media in such a rapid-fire format that it’s often hard to keep up. The story about Peanut the Squirrel might serve as a final reminder about what has divided voters all along. Now there’s a whole new reason to debate each other.

A previous version of this story cited a Trump statement that has been debunked.

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