Florida Governor Ron DeSantis made fighting back against woke corporations a centerpiece of his presidential campaign.
Disney provided the foil.
And Ron DeSantis threw down one challenge to Disney that will melt the woke mob’s brains.
Facing falling poll numbers, disappointing fundraising and angry big money donors, Ron DeSantis attempted to reboot the message of his Presidential campaign.
DeSantis entered the race on the back of his message that Florida is where “woke goes to die.”
The signature item of DeSantis’ anti-woke agenda was pushing back on Disney after Disney’s previous CEO Bob Chapek tried to kill a commonsense bill in Florida banning teachers from brainwashing children in grades K-3 into transgenderism through sexually inappropriate lesson plans.
DeSantis responded by signing legislation stripping Disney of its special privilege to act like its own government in the Reedy Creek Improvement District.
Returning Disney CEO Bob Iger sued and is now locked in a nasty legal battle with the state.
But DeSantis’ anti-woke message failed to gain traction with GOP voters and it annoyed DeSantis’ high dollar donor class supporters who want business to be free to wage culture wars against the Right.
Feeling the heat, DeSantis tried to pivot away from the fight against Disney telling CNBC he’s “basically moved on” from the battle with Disney.
DeSantis predicted Disney would lose their lawsuit and that would be that.
“They’re suing the state of Florida. They’re going to lose that lawsuit,” DeSantis added.
“So what I would say is, drop the lawsuit,” DeSantis continued.
DeSantis sought to reassure his donor class supporters that he wasn’t some anti-business culture warrior.
“This is a great place to do business,” DeSantis explained before noting that other theme parks prospered in Florida without the special government favors that Disney enjoyed.
“Your competitors all do very well here, Universal, SeaWorld. They have not had the same special privileges as you have,” DeSantis said in response to a question about what he would say to Bob Iger.
“So all we want to do is treat everybody the same, and let’s move forward. I’m totally fine with that. But I’m not fine with giving extraordinary privileges, you know, to one special company at the exclusion of everybody else,” DeSantis stated.
“I would just say, go back to what you did well. I think it’s going to be the right business decision, and all that,” DeSantis concluded.
