How Ron DeSantis screwed up with Disney: The Florida governor’s move to try to steamroll Disney has instead devolved into what could be a long court battle – and DeSantis may have handed Mickey a big victory with his own book
Ron DeSantis Fight Mickey Mouse
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ strategy appears to have been to use his power as governor of Florida to run up victories over the forces of the “woke,” leading into his presidential candidacy. And DeSantis’ most prominent battle has been with Disney, one of his state’s most powerful corporations.
In retaliation for the company’s opposition to his “Don’t Say Gay” law, DeSantis sought to take state control over Disney’s special business district, appointing his own board of donors and activists to a new board. However, Disney acted to strip the new board of its powers, which has led to a new round of lawsuits. This coincided with DeSantis’ plunge in the polls, even before he formally enters the presidential race.
A new report states that DeSantis may have hurt his chances in the legal wrangling with Disney, by having admitted certain things in his most book.
According to a column published Tuesday by Greg Sargent in the Washington Post, Disney’s complaint against DeSantis specifically references the governor’s memoir “The Courage to be Free,” and specifically the parts in which he talks about his battle with Disney.
Disney sued Ron DeSantis himself, the DeSantis-appointed district board, and other state officials, citing “a targeted campaign of government retaliation.”
“Disney finds itself in this regrettable position because it expressed a viewpoint the Governor and his allies did not like. Disney wishes that things could have been resolved a different way,” the lawsuit says, per WPTV. The DeSantis-appointed board, meanwhile, has countersued Disney.
Per the Post column, DeSantis’ book makes clear that the governor’s actions against Disney were a form of retaliation against the company for its opposition to that law, specifically what the book calls “support of indoctrinating young schoolchildren in woke gender identity politics.”
The book also notes that “things got worse for Disney,” while also discussing how the governor worked with the state legislature against that company.
“You have pretty clear statements from Governor DeSantis that he is seeking to punish a corporation for its speech,” Scott Wilkens, senior counsel at the Knight First Amendment Institute told the Post. “That’s prohibited by the First Amendment.”
The column also argued that the Disney lawsuit could lead to “damaging internal communications” coming to light, in the tradition of the recent Fox/Dominion case.
“Discovery will probably show that the real reason was viewpoint motivated,” Lee Kovarsky, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin, told the Post. “I doubt it will show that this was a principled business response to Disney’s long-standing governance carveout.”
DeSantis: Will He Run Against Trump?
Meanwhile, this week DeSantis was ripped by another Florida Republican, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL). Gaetz, a longtime Trump loyalist, has joined most of the GOP Congressional delegation in that state in backing Trump over DeSantis for president.
Gaetz, per Newsweek, questioned DeSantis’ motives in the Disney fight, on an episode of his video series on Rumble.
“The operative question in this whole saga between Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the Walt Disney Corporation is whether this is a true, sincere effort to crusade against corporate welfare, or whether it’s just virtue signaling and professional wrestling,” Gaetz said on the show.
“Is this Governor DeSantis really cracking with an effective effort against that type of corporate welfare we oppose, or is it something else, and is there willingness to maybe still treat Disney a little differently than everyone else gets treated?”
Gaetz also said that he would advise DeSantis not to run against Trump.
“President Trump’s leads in the polls are rising,” Gaetz said in a different interview this week. “President Trump secured the endorsements of almost everyone in the Florida congressional delegation. So there’s a lot of Trump momentum right now.”
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Expertise and Experience: Stephen Silver is a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive. He is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.
