A Snoopy fan account endorsed Trump. The Snoopy community revolted

This past weekend, the spotted beagle Snoopy, star of the Peanuts comics and cartoons, he found himself at the center of a political whirlwind. But that’s what happens when someone uses the popularity of a fictional dog to support a candidate for president.

Although creator Charles M. Schulz died in 2000 during publishing Peanuts strips to the end – Charlie Brown’s canine friend has remained a beloved character on dedicated social media channels. Some of these accounts are brand official, such as @Snoopy on X (formerly Twitter), which has 1.2 million followers. Others are fan-run and have no formal connection to the Schulz estate: these include @SnoopyPhotos, @gir1genius, @DailySnoopys and @snoopyweekly. Each post 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 friend Woodstock, next to a photo of actor Louis Partridge kissing his girlfriend, singer Olivia Rodrigo.)

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pic.twitter.com/PSsS1WzK46

— Daily Snoopy (@DailySnoopys) October 7, 2024

Compared to the vast majority of the internet, this stuff feels sweet and wholesome. But rising in the ranks of Snoopy influencers comes with a sizable audience, and with it the temptation to change their opinions on topics beyond the dog’s cutest looks.

That appears to be the trap @snoopyweekly fell into on Saturday, when its anonymous administrators made the choice to post a message of support for Donald Trump for president, complete with an image of Snoopy shaking hands with a Peanuts-style Trump character. The tweet, which garnered 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 taxpaying citizens rather than illegal immigrants.” The administrators also took a swipe at Vice President Kamala Harris, writing: “Kamala Harris may be ‘from a middle class family,’ but this account is run by a real middle class family.” They noted that they “started this profile last year as a distraction from the difficult economic times.”

you may have deleted the tweet but we all saw it and snoopy hates you btw @snoopyweekly pic.twitter.com/Kj7AmCdj5B

— paige (@laurieslaurence) October 6, 2024

The backlash was swift and fierce, with many X users tagging the official @Snoopy account to draw attention to the potentially infringing image. Others simply railed against the account owners for daring to impose their MAGA policies on Snoopy. “Fascist,” raged one critic. “This story is a shame,” wrote another, while a third said that “Snoopy would hate you.” Trump’s supporters were, of course, especially grateful. The administrators of @snoopyweekly did not immediately return a request for comment.

There were also more Snoopy pages, 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 has recently made an aggressive fascist push. dailysnoopys is the right choice.” And @DailySnoopys, also with about 120,000 followers, retweeted @gir1genius and elsewhere shared a letter Shulz 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 the loudest to return to what they call ‘American virtues’ who lack this trust in our countries,” Shulz wrote in the letter. “I believe that our greatest strength will always be in protecting our smallest minorities.”

— the words of charles schulz pic.twitter.com/Um0oYNfEcs

— Daily Snoopy (@DailySnoopys) October 6, 2024

The 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 Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, and have shared fan art of Snoopy with the Palestinian flag using the controversial phrase “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

Which, along with the Snoopy schism over Trump, suggests that in 2024, the nostalgic Americana of Peanuts cannot protect us from the violence of the moment. Snoopy fans, meanwhile, clearly see it as a responsibility to use their platforms to shape the course of history. For whatever reason, you don’t see it Garfield accounts that do that.

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