
We all just want this to be over with. It’s been going on for too long, and now it’s becoming absurd. In his very public battle with the Walt Disney Company, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis cannot back down from this particular fight, and it will keep going for a while.
When the Reedy Creek Improvement District removed any power from DeSantis’ Central Florida Tourism Oversight Board, Disney won the upper hand. In his attempt to get back at Disney, DeSantis had the Florida Legislature craft a bill that made void any of the changes that the Reedy Creek Improvement District made before it was disbanded. Governor DeSantis also threatened to build a prison near the Walt Disney World Resort Property.
Related: So DeSantis Wants a Disney Prison, Let’s Give Him a Disney Prison.
It may not be wise for DeSantis to anger his state’s largest employer and one of its largest taxpayers. Other states have already expressed a desire for Walt Disney World to move there, and there are rumblings that Disney is considering pulling back on some of its Florida projects. Early this month, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that Disney plans to spend $17 billion and hire an additional 14,000 employees in Florida.
But despite all that, this feud may not be ending anytime soon. Gregory Koger, a political science professor at the University of Miami, told the Orlando Sentinel that DeSantis can’t back down now. He mentioned beating Disney in his book, and if he were to back down now, it would weaken his brand nationally.
Koger said:
One of the things he wanted to demonstrate was that in DeSantis’ Florida, businesses must accept the social agenda of the Republican Party, and if anyone speaks out they will be punished. And it’s important to him to actually follow through, and make sure [Disney] actually ends up suffering for their exercise of free speech. I think the intent was to threaten Disney, to make Disney wonder about what range of counter moves and retaliatory actions the governor might have in store for them. But it just came off as openly retaliatory, [as if] we’re beyond the question of what’s the best public policy for the economy and citizens of the state of Florida.
Now, other Republicans are starting to turn on DeSantis. Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christy said that DeSantis “got taken” by Disney and needs to realize that he’s been beaten. Randy Ross, the former Orange Country treasurer for Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, told the Sentinel, “Florida is being laughed at. It’s one of the top news stories and not in a good way.”
Pages from a DeSantis PAC flyer being sent to voters in IA, NH, SC, NV pic.twitter.com/GMWC7i1A1T
— Sophia Cai (@SophiaCai99) April 21, 2023
For his part, DeSantis has double downed on his fight with Disney. DeSantis released a pamphlet in New Hampshire, Iowa, South Carolina, and Nevada with a political cartoon showing him knocking out a mouse. It just so happens that those four states will host the first four Republican primaries in 2024.
So, despite our collective desire for this feud to finally be finished, it does not seem like it will end anytime soon.
We will continue to keep you updated on this story at Disney Fanatic.