Trump Backtracks on His Support for Disney

Observers of the Republican contest for the 2024 presidential nomination may have been somewhat surprised recently when former President Donald Trump opposed the efforts of his chief rival, Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, to push back against the Disney Corporation’s woke agenda. Even more surprising is that Trump reversed course on Sunday, and now contends that DeSantis was too late in his anti-Disney actions, and, in fact, had not gone far enough.

A few weeks ago, Trump criticized DeSantis, arguing that his war on Disney had cost people jobs in Florida, after Disney — the state’s largest employer — decided to nix a major development project.

“RON DESANCTIMONIOUS GETS CAUGHT IN THE MOUSE TRAP” Trump tweeted from his campaign account. “The Culture Of Losing Continues,” the tweet continued, in an apparent comeback to DeSantis’ comments that Trump had had a recent string of electoral defeats. (Examples were the losses of Trump-endorsed candidates in Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania.)

“DeSanctus’ weakness leads to job losses and loss of $1B,” he added in a reference to the canceled project.

The Disney Corporation, which runs Disney World in Orlando, has in recent years become a vocal advocate of nontraditional views, pushing pro-homosexual and pro-transgender themes in its theme parks and movies and apparently feeling invincible because of its economic clout. In short, Disney has come a long way from family-based entertainment movies such as “The Shaggy Dog” and wholesome television. Now, Disney is strongly opposed to Judeo-Christian concepts of sexual morality.

But why did Trump feel compelled to join with the woke executives of Disney in going after DeSantis?

Trump is well-known for attacking any Republican rival standing in the way of his own presidential ambitions, resorting to nicknames such as “DeSanctimonious” for the Florida governor, “Lyin’ Ted” for Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, “Little Marco” for Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, and “Low-energy Jeb” for former Florida Governor Jeb Bush.

Now, as The Wall Street Journal opined, “the former President sided with the woke Mickey Mouse to score points over the Florida Governor.”

In his recent blasts against DeSantis, Trump said that DeSantis is “being absolutely destroyed by Disney. His original P.R. plan fizzled, so now he’s going back with a new one in order to save face. Disney’s next move will be the announcement that no more money will be invested in Florida because of the Governor. In fact, they could even announce a slow withdrawal or sale of certain properties, or the whole thing. Watch! That would be a killer.”

Trump condemned DeSantis’ actions against Disney as “so unnecessary,” dismissing it as just “a political STUNT!”

Rather than DeSantis launching a battle against Disney “single-handedly,” as Trump described it, it was Disney that threw the first punch in retaliation for a law passed by the Florida Legislature and signed by Governor DeSantis. Last year, the Parental Rights in Education law was passed, which, among other things, restricted what type of sexually related topics can be discussed in the public elementary schools in Florida.

Critics of the law tried to reframe the issue by calling the legislation the “Don’t Say Gay” law, in an attempt to imply that issues surrounding homosexuality cannot be taught at all in public schools. Two days later, Disney pledged $5 million in support of LGBTQ “rights” and publicly condemned the law.

Rather than simply taking it, as most Republican politicians typically do when a powerful big business such as Disney attempts to bully a state with economic threats, DeSantis struck back, calling for an end to Disney’s self-government.

(The Florida Legislature had created the Reedy Creek Improvement District (RCID) for Disney in 1967, which essentially gave Disney the same authority and responsibility as a county government. In 1967, the state created two municipalities within RCID — Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista — nestled between Orange and Osceola Counties, and with this special preference, Disney was able to build roads and buildings.)

Trump has abandoned his criticism of DeSantis for opposing Disney, and now is criticizing DeSantis for not doing enough and sooner about the powerful corporate behemoth. On his Truth Social platform, Trump said, “Disney has become a Woke and Disgusting shadow of its former self, with people actually hating it. Must go back to what it once was, or the ‘market’ will do irreparable damage.” Trump then blamed DeSantis for the situation. “This all happened during the Governorship of ‘Rob’ DeSanctimonious. Instead of complaining how, for publicity reasons only, he should have stopped it long ago. Would have been easy to do — Still is!”

One must ask, if DeSantis is opposing Disney now simply for political benefit, why did Trump himself reverse course now?

Perhaps Trump now realizes that the Republican primary electorate preferred DeSantis’ opposition to the woke policies of Disney Corporation, rather than Trump’s denunciations of DeSantis. Fortunately, there seems to be little support from the folks who regularly vote in Republican primaries for teaching little school children that we should embrace sexual deviance.

That Trump would have taken Disney’s side in this battle — even to jab his chief rival for the Republican nomination — is disappointing.