Walt Disney One Ups Ron DeSantis (again)

The Walt Disney Company has made an absolute fool out of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — AGAIN!!

Politics :
You may recall from back in April that DeSantis — who is preparing to seek the Republican nomination for President of the United States — picked a fight with the Walt Disney Company in an effort to appear “tough” and “Trump-like” ahead of the GOP primaries. He took offense to Disney’s decision to not fall in line with his “Don’t Say Gay” bill in Florida and revoked the company’s decades-long right to operate as its own government. He then signed a bill to “make Disney live under the same laws as everybody else” and “pay its fair share of taxes.”

In the Round 1 war of words, the Walt Disney Company one-upped DeSantis by changing the bylaws of their board of directors (before the governor could stock the board with his own flunkies) and nixed his proposed changes. Now, the company has scored yet another victory in Round 2 against the hopeful GOP presidential candidate.

Last week, Disney CEO Robert Iger took the DeSantis vs. Disney battle to a new level by announcing that he is pulling $17 billion in planned investments in Florida’s Disneyworld.

The first casualty was a Walt Disney Company office complex which was scheduled for construction in Orlando at a cost of around $1 billion. According to an estimate from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, the complex would have brought more than 2,000 Disney jobs to the region at an average salary of $120,000 per year.

Instead, Disney will create the additional jobs at its Disneyland property in California — an announcement that was music to the ears of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“That’s 2,000+ jobs that will be welcomed back with open arms to the Golden State,” Gov. Newsom said on Twitter.

Turns out, bigoted policies have consequences.

That’s 2,000+ jobs that will be welcomed back with open arms to the Golden State.

Thank you for doing the right thing, @Disney. https://t.co/1wrN2Zmi9O

— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) May 18, 2023

Additionally, Disney intended to relocate several thousand employees from its entire Imagineering Department in Southern California (which works with Disney’s movie studios to develop theme park attractions). However, those plans have also been taken off the table (thanks to the DeSantis war) and Florida will lose millions of dollars in income per year from the now-canceled project.

According to The New York Times, Josh D’Amaro, Disney’s theme park and consumer products chairman, told Walt Disney Company employees last week that the canceled Florida project was due to “changing business conditions.” However, without ever formally mentioning DeSantis by name, he gave a wink and a nod to employees that additional projects in Florida will be revived in the future with plans to create an estimated 13,000 jobs.

Or, in other words, once DeSantis and his divisive politics are long gone and out of office, Disney will return to business as usual and revive canceled projects as planned.

And so, it appears that the self-inflicted war Gov. DeSantis waged against Disney will cost Florida residents tens of thousands of lost jobs and millions of dollars in lost revenue — all because the governor needed to foolishly flex some muscle ahead of his presidential bid.

Thanks a lot, Ron!

OK WASSUP! discusses Politics:
Walt Disney cancels millions in Florida projects.