Disney is “Where Dreams Come True,” unless you’re Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. The public battle between the multinational entertainment company – one of the largest employers in Florida – and 2024 White House-hopeful DeSantis is headed to the courts.
Disney is “Where Dreams Come True,” unless you’re Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. The public battle between the multinational entertainment company – one of the largest employers in Florida – and 2024 White House-hopeful DeSantis is headed to the courts.
As Northwestern students prepare to vote in the 2024 election – many of whom will be voting in a presidential election for the first time – they may find DeSantis on their ballot. The outcome of the case, and how his feud with Disney will affect his presidential prospects is yet to be seen.
Conservative war on “woke”
The feud began in 2022, when Disney condemned DeSantis’ “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which prohibited Florida teachers from discussing sexual orientation or gender identity in school.
The bill “could be used to unfairly target gay, lesbian, non-binary and transgender kids and families," Disney's now former CEO Bob Chapek said at a meeting with the company’s shareholders.
DeSantis denounced the entertainment giant for being too “woke” – a criticism he had also made of the parks’ face mask policies during the COVID-19 pandemic. To hammer the message home, the Governor swiftly signed legislation to eliminate Disney’s longstanding self-governing status and tax privileges, which it had as a function of being its own district. He replaced the district’s existing board of Disney-elected members with a board of his own hand-picked appointees.
“Governor DeSantis is wielding the power of the state to punish businesses simply for not falling in line with his brutal and discriminatory attacks,” said the Human Rights Campaign of the move, accusing DeSantis of trying to “out-Trump Trump.”
Not going down without a fight
Before DeSantis’ new board was able to take the reins, Disney got approval from the Central Florida board to maintain the majority of their authority over the park. This power includes control over future park developments on the 27,000 acres of Disney land. They also quietly stripped the incoming board of their control over “anything beyond the ability to maintain the roads and maintain the basic infrastructure,” rendering the DeSantis loyalists virtually powerless.
Former President Donald Trump took Disney’s under-the-radar maneuver to be an embarrassing defeat for his potential 2024 primary opponent. “[DeSantis] is being absolutely destroyed by Disney. His original P.R. plan fizzled, so now he’s going back with a new one in order to save face,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
“Saving face” came in the form of threats following the revelation that Disney had protected much of its power.
“What should we do with this land?... Someone even said maybe they need another state prison,” DeSantis said with a smile at the televised press conference. “Who knows? The possibilities are endless.”
While some Republicans expressed their support of DeSantis’ retaliatory power play, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said building a prison would be an overreach of government control.
“The job of government is to stay out of the business of business. I don’t think Ron DeSantis is a conservative, based on his actions towards Disney,” said Christie at a forum hosted by Semafor.
The final straw
DeSantis’ new board voted to void Disney’s plan to preserve their control over the park earlier this month. Immediately after, Disney filed a lawsuit in federal court, citing “a targeted campaign of government retaliation,” according to their 77 page claim. The company said that they have no choice but to sue to protect themselves and their staff from politically-motivated retribution.
“Disney regrets that it has come to this,” the company wrote. “There is no room for disagreement about what happened here: Disney expressed its opinion on state legislation and was then punished by the State for doing so.”
Going against the country’s most popular theme park has put DeSantis back in the hot seat and elicited criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike.
“I had a lot of Ron DeSantis jokes ready, but Mickey Mouse beat the hell out of me and got there first,” President Joe Biden joked at the White House Correspondents Dinner on Saturday.
DeSantis has pledged to “never back down,” which happens to be the name of the political action committee encouraging him to run for President. Disney has also remained unshaken in their message of inclusivity. The park will be hosting its first ever “Pride Nite” at Disneyland to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community next month.