Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his allies are ramping up their fight against Walt Disney Co., at the same time as more of the possible Republican presidential candidate’s rivals criticize him for his long battle with the entertainment titan.
DeSantis ripped Disney repeatedly this week over its recent maneuvers to thwart the governor’s efforts to seize some control of the corporate’s Orlando parks and properties.
“We’ll make certain that we keep them of their pen, a method or one other,” DeSantis said of Disney on Wednesday during an event within the early presidential primary state of South Carolina.
The governor, who has not announced his presidential plans but is taken into account former President Donald Trump’s top competitor for the 2024 GOP nomination, was promoting his latest book, which derides Disney as a “Magic Kingdom of Woke Corporatism.”
Meanwhile, his handpicked board of supervisors overseeing Disney World’s special tax district increased the pressure on Disney. The officials moved Wednesday to regain authority over the property that they are saying Disney wrongly took away just before they took charge.
The board took that step two days after DeSantis floated a variety of possible actions against Disney World, including developing land nearby.
“People have said possibly create a state park, attempt to do more amusement parks. Someone said one other state prison. Who knows?” DeSantis said.
It’s the newest chapter within the grim tale that began greater than a yr earlier, after Disney opposed the controversial Republican-passed Florida law limiting classroom discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity. That laws, dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” by critics, “should never have been signed” by DeSantis, Disney said in a March 2022 statement.
Disney’s stance sparked a bitter feud. The state’s Republican governor and GOP-held legislature targeted the special tax district that has allowed Disney to essentially govern itself for a long time.
DeSantis’ willingness to make use of his political power to interact in animating cultural fights has made him a rising star within the GOP. But his transition to the national stage, in apparent anticipation of a presidential announcement, has sparked criticism even from a few of his fellow Republicans.
Trump, a former DeSantis ally who’s now lashing out on the governor frequently, wrote Tuesday that the governor is getting “absolutely destroyed by Disney.”
Republican former Recent Jersey Gov. Chris Christie this week referenced the Disney row while questioning DeSantis’ political skills. “That is not the guy I would like sitting across from” President Xi Jinping of China or Russian President Vladimir Putin “and attempting to resolve what’s happening in Ukraine, for those who cannot see around a corner [Disney CEO] Bob Iger created for you,” Christie said in a Semafor interview.
GOP Recent Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu said Monday on CNN that the battle “convolutes the whole Republican message,” Politico reported.
Those Republicans are either running for president or considered possible candidates, making them DeSantis’ potential rivals. But some polls of the potential GOP primary field also show DeSantis losing ground to Trump, a trend The Recent York Times noted last month.
Asked for comment concerning the Florida board’s latest move and the recent GOP criticism, DeSantis press secretary Bryan Griffin referred to a Tuesday statement accusing Disney of enacting a “legally deficient, eleventh hour agreement to preserve their special privileges.”
“That is an try and subvert the desire of the people of Florida, and Governor DeSantis is not going to stand for that,” Griffin said within the statement, which was a response to Christie’s criticism.
The Reedy Creek Improvement District, an area government entity created in 1967, gave Disney regulatory control over public services and other functions within the 25,000-acre area encompassing its Florida parks and resorts. Disney paid hundreds of thousands of dollars annually in taxes levied through Reedy Creek to fund those services, on top of its local tax obligations.
Weeks after Disney denounced the classroom bill, Florida Republicans passed laws that will dissolve the corporate’s special designation. DeSantis signed the bill a day later.
The move raised fears that Florida taxpayers within the two counties surrounding Reedy Creek might be burdened with an enormous tax bill if Florida revoked Disney’s self-governing status. In a special session in February, the state legislature scrapped that plan, swapping it with a proposal to rename the district and permit DeSantis to appoint its five board members.
But last month, the newly picked board of the governing body — now dubbed the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District — said their predecessors had stripped them of lots of their powers on the way in which out the door.
The previous board had approved an agreement in February that ceded developmental power over the district to Disney.
At Wednesday’s meeting, the brand new board agreed to take up a resolution next week to undo that development deal.
The unanimous move got here after a parade of voices, including officials from state agencies and the board’s attorneys, ripped Disney over the dispute.
“The underside line is that Disney engaged in a caper worthy of Scrooge McDuck to attempt to evade Florida law. Its efforts are illegal and they’re going to not stand,” said David Thompson, identified as trial counsel for the board.
Thompson and one other lawyer, Alan Lawson, argued that the event deal was “null and void,” partly since the old board did not mail notices about it to affected property owners as required.
Disney didn’t immediately reply to CNBC’s request for comment on the board meeting.
