Governor Ron DeSantis should be careful whom he picks on. Not only did Disney outsmart DeSantis and retain control of DisneyWorkd, but its CEO announced at a shareholder meeting in California that Disney plans to grow in Florida. He also rapped DeSantis for trying to punish Disney for exercising its constitutional right to free speech.
The Orlando Sentinel reported:
The Walt Disney Co. plans to invest $17 billion in Walt Disney World over the next 10 years and create 13,000 new jobs, CEO Bob Iger said Monday, as he accused Gov. Ron DeSantis of being vindictive over Disney’s response to the so-called “don’t say gay” law last year….
Disney World will host 50 million visitors this year, and its planned expansion will bring even more guests and employees to the state in the years to come, along with generating more taxes, Iger said.
“Our point on this is that any action that thwarts those efforts, simply to retaliate for a position the company took, sounds not just anti-business, but it sounds anti-Florida, and I’ll just leave it at that,” he said….
During the company’s annual meeting, Iger also said Disney loves Florida and has heavily invested in the state over the past 50 years in its expansion of the Disney World resort, as the state’s largest taxpayer and through its charitable actions.
The state’s relationship with Florida has “kind of been a two-way street,” Iger said.
But that changed last year when former CEO Bob Chapek spoke out against Florida’s Parental Rights in Education legislation, which restricts discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in early-grade classrooms. That drew DeSantis’ ire and led to a law dissolving of the company’s special land use, utilities and public service district, Reedy Creek.
“And while the company may have not handled the position that it took very well, a company has a right to freedom of speech just like individuals do,” Iger said.
He said DeSantis dissolved Reedy Creek “in effect to seek to punish a company for its exercise of a constitutional right.”
“And that just seems really wrong to me, against any company or individual but particularly against the company that means so much to the state that you live in,” he added.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Disney will be around for decades, even if Disney World in Florida ends up underwater one day.
Dangerously Deranged Despot DeSantis, may also end up governor of Florida until he dies of old age. All he has to do is wait four years between two consecutive terms to run again. That means once this term ends, DDDD has to wait four years to run again… unless his puppet legislature changes Florida’s constitution so he won’t have to wait.
“The Governor of the State of Florida is an elected constitutional officer, the head of the executive branch, and the highest state office in Florida. The governor is elected by popular election every four years. There is no lifetime limit on the number of times he or she may be elected, but a governor who has been elected to two consecutive terms must be out of office for at least one election cycle before being eligible for re-election.”
I hope Iger’s response can help people better understand DeSantis for the paper tiger he is. He talks like Mussolini, but he is really a case of arrested development. He prefers ridicule and rancor to dialogue and cheap stunts to meaningful policy. He may have Florida in his pocket, but he has much to prove where saner more reasonable minds prevail. The GOP is all in on these cultures wars as their attack plan for 2024. After all, it is so much easier than actually leading and governing. We need to stop their fascist dog and pony show in its tracks.
He is more and more a caricature. But, then, so were Reagan, Shrub, and Trump.
How is saying you will invest $17 billion with the consequent increase in tax revenue for Florida showing DeSantis that he can’t get away with what he did?
If anything, it shows him he can do anything he pleases and there will be no repercussions for Florida and for him.
Disney clearly cares about one thing and one thing only: making money.
While that’s not at all surprising for a corporation, it’ doesn’t indicate that they have made DeSantis pay a price for his stance and in fact, it looks like they haave rewarded him for it.
You’re missing the point. Gov. Rhonda gets to continue his performative outrage AND still gets the jobs & investments. He’s laughing all the way to the bank. He’s not interested in actually changing the Disney operation, just using it for his personal optics.
It goes kinda like this: “Oooh, we’re gonna force the state to take billions and billions of dollars and tens of thousands of jobs on you, so there, we’ll show you!” I’m having a hard time finding any silver lining here myself. Seems like we’re all getting played some more.
I think you have to go back to the March 30 post, “Mickey Mouse Humiliates Ron DeSantis,” to understand how Disney’s stance is kind of “in your face” to DeSantis. I don’t quite understand the machinations other than they thwarted DeSantis’ attempt to control Disney.
My hunch is that Disney is doing PR for itself.
My understanding is that Disney got the outgoing board to approve Disney’s having control over the district before it disbanded. So, DeStalin’s handpicked, toady-filled NKVD was crippled before its takeover.
Yes, the existing Disney board created a plan to leave Disney Corp in control until the last descendant of King Charles dies. Public meetings held, two of them, they followed the letter of the law, before DeSantis engineered his takeover.
DeStalin is looking a lot less attractive these days. People are getting hip to him.
The people who were already hip to him are now even hipper to him.
But the hippies were never part of the DeSantis voting block.