Within the waning hours of a bitter US presidential marketing campaign, it has come all the way down to this: did Donald Trump pause his barnstorming of battleground states Saturday to blast New York’s supposed execution of Peanut the squirrel?
In a presidential marketing campaign marked by overseas meddling and disinformation, Trump’s marketing campaign resolutely denied the remark that had gone viral.
“It is a pretend assertion,” Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt informed the New York Put up.
The assertion that appeared to have come from the Republican billionaire’s marketing campaign stemmed from precise occasions this week, when a pet squirrel with half one million followers on Instagram was seized from his proprietor and euthanized.
Peanut Euthanised
Peanut, star of the peanut_the_squirrel12 account, had delighted followers along with his lovely exploits, equivalent to nibbling on waffles and carrying tiny costumes.
However New York’s Chemung County Division of Well being and the state Division of Environmental Conservation stated Friday that Peanut, together with a racoon dwelling with proprietor Mark Longo, had been possessed illegally and had been euthanized to check for rabies.
“New York authorities… put extra effort into discovering an eliminating a squirrel, who was harmless by all accounts, than they do to manage the unchecked unlawful immigrants who’ve flooded into their state,” the official-looking marketing campaign assertion stated about Peanut being “executed” by New York authorities.
“If Peanut may have informed them that he was from Mexico, they might have despatched him on his means and given him a lodge room and a $500 reward card to Buddy Squirrel. As an alternative, he was taken from his household. Very unhappy, and a whole waste of assets!”
The Peanut controversy was amplified by Trump’s high backer and the world’s richest man, Elon Musk.
The tech tycoon introduced to his 200 million followers on X: “Authorities overreach kidnapped an orphan squirrel and executed him” — linking to a information story that confirmed a cuddly Peanut carrying a squirrel-sized cowboy hat.
The Trump marketing campaign didn’t instantly reply to an AFP request for remark.
