Peanut the Squirrel Controversy Likely Contributed to Trump Win, Owner Believes

Donald Trump is on his way back to the White House ... and the controversy surrounding the death of Peanut the squirrel might have helped ... at least that's what the squirrel's owner thinks.

Mark Longo told TMZ he was humbled and honored that on Monday, Vice President-elect J.D. Vance was at a rally, talking about how "fired up" DT was over the death of Peanut ... which ML is sure helped them at the polls.

Those campaign comments -- as ML sees it -- showed Trump cares about the little guy ... even if that little guy is a medium-sized rodent that took social media by storm with his tricks.

So far, Mark has not heard anything from Trump's camp ... but he's holding out hope the president-elect looks into just what the heck occurred.

Mark and his wife, Daniela, previously told us ... they are already in the process of legal action, but they cannot give too many more details at this point. But ML makes it crystal clear -- "Peanut did not die in vain!"

Their story went national after they accused the state of abusing power and wasting taxpayer funds to seize and kill Peanut -- all because of some anonymous claims, which ML says were all total BS.

Peanut and one of the couple's pet raccoons, Fred, were taken away ... both have since been euthanized as a result of rabies testing.

As TMZ reported ... Mark has been made aware that the Department of Environmental Conservation is conducting an “internal investigation" ... and he hopes to learn more soon.