From Yahoo:
“DeSantis escalates feud with Disney: Here's everything we
know”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s ongoing culture war with the Walt
Disney Co. is again in the spotlight after former President Donald Trump
criticized his would-be opponent in the 2024 Republican presidential primary
for what he called an “unnecessary political stunt.” “DeSanctus [sic] is being
absolutely destroyed by Disney,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social, his
social media platform, on Tuesday. Here’s everything we know about the feud
between DeSantis and Disney, culled from our original reporting and Yahoo News’
partner network, including the Associated Press, Miami Herald and Orlando
Sentinel.
How did DeSantis’s fight with Disney begin? The long-running feud between
DeSantis and the Walt Disney Co. started nearly two years ago, when the company
required on-site employees at its Orlando theme park to be vaccinated against
COVID-19, the Miami Herald reports. DeSantis, in response, announced that he
would impose fines against Disney and other companies with vaccine mandates.
Things escalated last year when the governor took aim at Disney for
publicly opposing legislation restricting schools from teaching about sexual
orientation and gender identity, which critics called the state’s “Don’t Say
Gay” law. (The Florida Board of Education on Wednesday approved an expanded
version of the law at the governor’s request.) DeSantis urged the
Florida Legislature to retaliate by passing legislation that gives the governor
control of Walt Disney World’s Reedy Creek Improvement District, and allows him
to appoint a five-member board of supervisors. A 1967 Florida law created a
special district that allows Disney to govern itself. “There’s a new
sheriff in town,” DeSantis said in February when he signed the legislation,
according to the Associated Press.
How has Disney responded? In February, before DeSantis took control of the
board, the company quietly stripped the incoming board of most powers before
the new members could take their seats. DeSantis accused Disney of blindsiding
him and ordered an investigation into the company’s actions. Disney CEO
Bob Iger defended the move at the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting,
calling the governor’s attempts at retaliation “anti-business and
anti-Florida.” “A company has a right to freedom of speech just like an
individual does,” Iger said of Disney’s criticism of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay”
law, according to the Miami Herald. “[DeSantis] retaliates against us — in
effect to punish a company for exercising its constitutional right. And that
seems really wrong to me.”
What’s the latest in the dispute? At a news conference on Monday,
DeSantis and state lawmakers proposed legislation that would require state
inspections of Disney World rides and prevent it from ever having another mask
mandate, the Orlando Sentinel reported. DeSantis even floated the idea of
building a state prison next to the theme park. “I mean, I just think
that the possibilities are endless," he said. DeSantis, a
self-styled culture warrior and critic of so-called woke ideology, has used
such clashes to leverage his national profile as he weighs a bid for the 2024
Republican presidential nomination.
What has been the response from other Republicans? Trump and other potential GOP
presidential hopefuls have slammed DeSantis’s handling of his ongoing feud with
Disney, Politico reported. “Disney’s next move will be the announcement
that no more money will be invested in Florida because of the governor,” Trump
wrote in his Truth Social post. “In fact, they could even announce a slow
withdrawal or sale of certain properties, or the whole thing. Watch! That would
be a killer. In the meantime, this is all so unnecessary, a political STUNT!”
“That’s not the guy I want sitting across from [Chinese] President Xi
[Jinping] ... or sitting across from [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and
trying to resolve what’s happening in Ukraine, if you can’t see around a corner
Bob Iger created for you,” former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said during a
livestreamed interview with the news outlet Semafor on Tuesday, and added: “I
don’t think Ron DeSantis is a conservative, based on his actions towards
Disney.” The super-PAC supporting Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign
mocked DeSantis’s bid to “one-up Mickey Mouse after a devastating and
embarrassing blow to his efforts to rein in Disney World.” New Hampshire
Gov. Chris Sununu, another potential 2024 candidate, told CNN that DeSantis’s
Disney feud “has gone from kind of going after a headline to something that has
devolved into an issue.” “It’s not good for Gov. DeSantis,” Sununu said.
“I don't think it’s good for the Republican Party.” The Wall Street
Journal criticized Trump for siding with “the woke Mickey Mouse to score points
over the Florida governor,” but added: “Nobody emerges from this looking good.”
Wait, didn’t DeSantis get married at Disney World? He did. “Long before Disney
became what he derides as a ‘woke corporation,’ its sprawling theme park near
Orlando was the venue where he once said his ‘I Do's,’” Insider reported. Here’s
how the publication described his nuptials: “Dressed in his white, decorated
Naval uniform, DeSantis exchanged wedding vows with Casey DeSantis, whose
maiden name was Black, at the Grand Floridian's wedding pavilion, a chapel with
arched windows overlooking Cinderella's Castle and the Seven Seas Lagoon. The
reception was held at Epcot's Italy Isola, in a nod to the couple's Italian
heritage.” In a joint interview with Ron and Casey DeSantis on Sirius XM
in February, the governor said his wife chose the venue, which, given the
current feud, he admits is “kind of ironic.”
^ It's clear that DeSantis has no idea what he is doing and
won't win over Disney.
If Disney World leaves Florida there is nothing left in
Florida to go visit.
Florida needs Disney, but Disney doesn't need Florida. Disney
has: Walt Disney Pictures, Disneynature, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar,
Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm. 20th Century Studios, Disney Records, Disney Music,
Disney Theater Group, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, ABC, ABC News,
ABC Daytime. Freeform, Hulu, FX, Disney+, Disneyland California, Disneyland
Paris, Hong Kong Disneyland, Shanghai Disney Resort, Disneyland Tokyo, Walt
Disney World, Disney Cruises, Adventures by Disney, National Geographic
Expedition, Disney Online, ESPN, ESPN 2, Disney Institute, Buena Vista, Disney
University, National Geographic, Disney Publishing, Disney Vacation Club,
Castaway Cay, etc. and is worth $29 Billion Dollars.
Florida has: Key West, Miami Beach, NASA, Universal Studios,
the Everglades, alligators, love bugs, Hurricanes, Hillbillies, Humidity,
Racists, and Homophobes.
I’ve been to Florida dozens of times to all parts of the
State in every Season.
I’ve been to: Jacksonville, Miami, Miami Beach, Little Havana,
Tampa, St. Pete, Orlando, Kissimmee, Tallahassee, Fort Lauderdale, Naples, Key
Largo, Pensacola, Cape Canaveral and Homestead.
I’ve visited: Disney World, the Everglades, Busch Gardens,
the Tampa Zoo, Gatorland, Miami Zoo, Everglades Alligator Farm, Kennedy Space
Center, The Dolphin Experience, etc.
What's even more funny is that he was married at Disney World
and yet now he can never go back to visit - or take his 3 kids there.
He is just another joke of a Politician. ^
https://www.yahoo.com/news/desantis-v-disney-feud-explained-trump-gop-florida-191942782.html
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