Ron DeSantis Claims “We Won the Battle Against Disney”

For more than a year, The Walt Disney Company and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis have been locked in a heated battle that is showing no signs of slowing down. Things started going downhill quickly when ex-Disney CEO Bob Chapek spoke out against Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill. The bill was also called the “Don’t Say Gay” bill and was championed by Governor DeSantis.

Related: DeSantis Keeps Giving Disney Lawyers More Ammunition

DeSantis’ wrath was swift and it was unrelenting. In what felt like no time at all, DeSantis and the Republican-led Florida State Legislature had voted to dissolve the Reedy Creek Improvement District. That district had allowed Disney to self-govern for nearly 70 years. But the controversial Florida governor’s anger didn’t subside. He continued to threaten Disney in a number of ways, including saying that the state would consider building a prison next to Walt Disney World Resort.

Related: Florida Lawyer Calls DeSantis’ Case “Fairy Tales and Pixie Dust”

The fighting began in March 2022 and, by April 2023, Disney had filed a lawsuit against Governor DeSantis. The Mouse House claimed that the Governor violated its First Amendment right to free speech. They also accused him of breach of contract. However, they have since dropped their breach of contract claims and are just focusing on the First Amendment violations.

DeSantis has always maintained an attitude that Disney isn’t really affecting him. However, it has cost him billions of dollars in support as he runs for President of the United States. He also told Disney to drop the lawsuit because he has “moved on”, but Disney refuses to back down.

Even though the lawsuit is still moving forward, DeSantis is claiming that he has “won the battle against Disney.”

DeSantis made the astonishing claim during an interview with Bob Vander Plaats, the President and CEO of the FAMiLY Leader.

Disney, which is the most powerful corporation in the history of Florida, they came out whole hog against it [the Parental Rights bill]. A lot of these old guard Republicans were telling me that somehow Disney, when they call the shots you just got to bend the knee, and I said no way, I’m not going to sit idly by and let people corrupt the innocence of our kids. If we can’t stand up for our kids in those situations then we’re not good for anything, so we fought back against Disney, we had a big battle with them, and we won the battle against Disney.

DeSantis also said that, because of the fight with Disney, other companies may decide to keep quiet about important issues since they won’t want to be punished by politicians. Even though such punishment could easily evolve into another First Amendment lawsuit.

I’ll tell you the fact that we were willing to stand up to [Disney], that had reverberations across this country. I think you do have some CEOs that they’re not necessarily bought into this agenda, but it’s the path of least resistance because the media will attack them if they don’t do the agenda, some of these activist employees will attack them, and so they just say you know what bend the knee and move on. Now, they can say well gee I don’t want to end up like Disney people may fight back from the [political] right now. So I think we helped kind of refocus business and America in a better way I think it was going off the rails.

Since almost the beginning of the fight, DeSantis has attacked Disney for being “woke”, creating more diverse characters in its movies, as well as allowing cast members to dress in the way they feel most comfortable in, regardless of gender. At one point, DeSantis even threatened to tighten the purse strings on the former Reedy Creek District — now called the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District — if Disney kept making “woke” content.

Despite the confidence DeSantis appears to have, legal experts are doubting that he will come out on top. The Florida Governor has repeatedly admitted to punishing Disney for speaking out against his bill. He even admitted to it in his new book. Disney has amended its lawsuit against DeSantis to use his own words against him.

Do you think DeSantis has beaten Disney? Let us know in the comments.