Did Donald Trump issue a statement on Peanut the Squirrel saying the animal was "executed" by the State of New York? No, that's not true: The Trump campaign said a viral image that is supposedly a Trump statement is fake. Lead Stories found no posts mentioning squirrels on Trump's accounts on X and Truth Social as of this writing.
One version containing the fake Trump statement appeared in a post (archived here) on X on November 2, 2024. It said:
🇺🇸TRUMP: NEW YORK 'EXECUTED' INNOCENT PETS IN BIZARRE RAID
Trump condemned New York authorities after state agents allegedly raided the home of Mark Longo, detaining him and seizing his pets, Fred the Raccoon and Peanut the Squirrel.
'These animals were later executed by the State of New York,' Trump stated, calling it a 'complete waste of resources' under the 'terrible Governor.'
'If Peanut could have told them that he was from Mexico, they would have sent him on his way and given him a hotel room... Instead, he was taken from his family. Very sad.'
Source: Statement by Donald J. Trump
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Sun Nov 3 21:38:50 2024 UTC
The entry showed an attached file that looked like an official statement.
When asked about the authenticity of the statement via email on November 3, 2024, the Trump campaign said it was fake.
The image went viral in the aftermath of news (archived here) about a squirrel named Peanut who was seized and euthanized by New York state authorities.
However, contrary to the post on X, the purported Trump statement did not originate from the Republican presidential nominee.
The earliest posts shared a link (archived here) to pbs.twimg.com. As explained by the PBS.org website (archived here), that resource has nothing to do with the public broadcaster. In this case, PBS means "Photo Blobstore." Such links connect to X's image-hosting subdomain.
Very broad Google searches across Trump's account on Truth Social for the words "squirrel" (archived here) and "peanut" (archived here) produced zero results.
A Google search across his account on X for the word "squirrel" seen here (archived here) returned no matches, either.
Additionally, Mediaite.com, which first mistook the viral image for a real statement, later issued a correction (archived here):
(Source: Mediaite screenshot taken on Sun Nov 3 21:55:44 2024 UTC)
At the end of October 2024, state authorities seized Peanut, prompted by "multiple reports from the public about the potentially unsafe housing of wildlife," according to the statement from the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) cited by the AP (archived here). The DEC said (archived here) on November 1, 2024, the squirrel was euthanized to get tested for rabies after biting a person involved with the investigation.
Other Lead Stories fact checks mentioning Donald Trump can be found here. Stories concerning the 2024 U.S. presidential campaign are here.
