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.
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) May 18, 2023
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
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.
The Walt Disney Company has made an absolute fool out of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis – AGAIN!! […] DJ
This is indeed True. But you have to admit they had a lot of help from who? (Drumroll please…)
RON DeSANTIS!…Lol…smh!!
The Hill:
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s battle with Disney has gone too far in the view of some Republican lawmakers who are growing increasingly worried about preserving the GOP’s traditional reputation as a pro-business party focused on economic growth and job creation.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who served as Florida’s governor from 2011 to 2019, says it’s time for “cooler heads to prevail,” noting Disney is a major employer that draws in huge numbers of tourists who boost the state economy.
Scott says the legislation DeSantis signed to prohibit classroom instruction about gender orientation to young children, which sparked the feud, “was a good bill,” but he stressed Disney’s importance to the state economy.
“This is the biggest or second-biggest employer in the state. Half the tourism that comes to our state comes to visit Disney. It’s a reason people come to our state. After they come there, people move there. So I think cooler heads need to prevail. My view is we have to do everything to help our businesses grow,” Scott said in an interview.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R), who has represented Florida in the Senate since 2011, told Fox News last month it’s “problematic” if state actions toward an individual or business appear driven more by politics.
“I think where it gets problematic in the eyes of some people is when you start creating the idea — and I’m not saying we’re there yet as a state — but the idea that somehow if you run crossways with us politically, whoever’s in charge, then you may wind up in the crosshairs of the legislature for political purposes to make a statement at you,” he said.
His so-called “soft rollout” of a presidential campaign challenging Trump had already been called a “disaster” by his allies, no less. Then Disney hit him with this latest blow.. smh!
Ron DeSantis is exactly who I thought he was. A dangerous clown. A slightly different but dangerous clown than Trump.
But a Clown nonetheless!
I was wondering when Repubs would speak about Desantis fighting Disney. Wil found the article where Repubs basically told him shut his mouth. The problem is he started this mess and now he does not know how to get out of it and still save face.
If Desantis was president of a company and lost a billion dollar contract his board of directors would fire him. That is what he is doing by losing this stupid argument he made with Disney.
No doubt about it BD, as the company head, he surely would be fired by now!
As you also said, he made this mess and now he doesn’t know how to get out of it! So he just keeps digging…smh!
And I’m fine with that.