A Snoopy Fan Account Endorsed Trump. The Snoopy Community Revolted
This past weekend, the spotted beagle Snoopy, star of the Peanuts comics and cartoons, found himself at the center of a political whirlwind. But that’s what happens when someone leverages the popularity of fictional dog to endorse a candidate for president.
Though creator Charles M. Schulz died in 2000 — publishing Peanuts strips right up to the end — Charlie Brown‘s canine companion has remained a beloved character across dedicated social media channels. Some of these accounts are brand-official, like @Snoopy on X (formerly Twitter), which has 1.2 million followers. Others are fan-run, with no formal connection to the Schulz estate: these include @SnoopyPhotos, @gir1genius, @DailySnoopys, and @snoopyweekly. Each reposts Snoopy images, clips, and memes, occasionally revealing unrelated pop culture interests. (@DailySnoopy, for example, recently posted a side-by-side of Snoopy kissing bird pal Woodstock next to a photo of actor Louis Partridge kissing his girlfriend, singer Olivia Rodrigo.)
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https://twitter.com/DailySnoopys/status/1843254714533904566
Compared to the vast majority of the internet, this type of stuff feels sweet and wholesome. But rising in the ranks of Snoopy influencers brings a significant audience, and with it, the temptation to sway their views on topics besides the pooch’s cutest looks.
That, it appears, is the trap that @snoopyweekly fell into on Saturday, when its anonymous administrators made the choice to post an endorsement of Donald Trump for president, complete with an image of Snoopy shaking hands with a Peanuts-style Trump character. The tweet, which collected at least 19,000 likes before it was deleted, claimed that a second Trump term would mean “a secure border, and a government that prioritizes prosperity for its tax paying citizens rather than illegal immigrants.” The admins also took a swipe at Vice President Kamala Harris, writing: “Kamala Harris may have ‘come from a middle class family,’ but this account is run by an actual middle class family.” They noted that they had “started this profile last year as a distraction from the difficult economic times.”
https://twitter.com/laurieslaurence/status/1842750354712371671
The backlash was swift and fierce, with many X users tagging the official @Snoopy account to call attention to the potentially copyright-infringing image. Others simply railed against the account owners for daring to impose their MAGA politics on Snoopy. “Fascist,” fumed one critic. “This account is a disgrace,” wrote another, while a third said that “Snoopy would hate your ass.” Trump supporters, of course, were mostly appreciative. The admins of @snoopyweekly did not immediately return a request for comment.
More Snoopy pages weighed in, too, all on the anti-Trump side. “FUCK SNOOPYWEEKLY,” wrote @gir1genius, whose Snoopy-centric feed has more than 120,000 followers, compared to @SnoopyWeekly’s roughly 19,000. Author and podcaster Jamie Loftus quoted that post to explain “for those outside the snoopy community, snoopyweekly recently made an aggressive fascistic push. dailysnoopys is the way to go.” And @DailySnoopys, also with around 120,000 followers, retweeted @gir1genius, elsewhere sharing a letter Schulz wrote in response to a fan in 1970, in which the artist described the importance of “faith in our democracy.”
“Sometimes it is the very people who cry out the loudest in favor of getting back to what they call ‘American Virtues’ who lack this faith in our countries,” Schulz wrote in the letter. “I believe that our greatest strength lies always in the protection of our smallest minorities.”
https://twitter.com/DailySnoopys/status/1842784460850274403
After deleting their Trump post, the @snoopyweekly team nonetheless thanked MAGA accounts for their “support” and continued to encourage voter registration in swing states. Then they abruptly deactivated the account.
The multiple of administrators of @DailySnoopys, who also did not immediately respond to a request for comment, are not shy about their own politics: They routinely share links to fundraisers for families trying to flee the bombardment of Gaza by Israel, and have shared fan art of Snoopy with the Palestinian flag that uses the controversial phrase “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
Which, taken along with the Snoopy schism over Trump, suggests that in 2024, the nostalgic Americana of Peanuts can’t shield us from the violence of the moment. The Snoopy fans, meanwhile, clearly consider it a responsibility to use their platforms to guide the course of history. For whatever reason, you don’t see Garfield accounts doing that.
Update Oct. 8, 6:24pm ET: This article has been updated to reflect the deactivation of the @snoopyweekly account.
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