DeSantis Attempts To Move Away From Tension With Disney

(RightWing.org) – Florida Governor and 2024 presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis has partly built his reputation through his uncompromising approach to the Disney Corporation’s wokeness. Now it looks like he’s trying to cool down the conflict between himself and the House of Mouse.

Governor DeSantis’s feud with Disney has been one of the high-profile issues of his time in office so far. The conflict began when Disney CEO Bob Chapek, under pressure from LGBT employees, publicly condemned the Republican governor’s 2022 Parental Rights in Education Act, which opponents call the “Don’t say gay” act. However, DeSantis didn’t take kindly to an entertainment company meddling in state politics and hit back hard.

Since 1967 Disney had run the “Reedy Creek Improvement District” under a state law that allowed the corporation to act as its own local government. It doesn’t anymore. On February 27, DeSantis signed a new law repealing the one granting Disney authority and took the District back into state control. Since then, lawsuits have been flying back and forth as Disney tries to defend its corporate privileges and the governor attempts to make it toe the line.

Now DeSantis, probably with his eye on his presidential campaign, wants to put the dispute to bed. On August 14, he told CNBC it was time for Disney to put it behind them. He said, “We’ve basically moved on,” adding that the entertainment company is fighting the state government and isn’t going to win. He urged the company to “move forward” but warned he wasn’t open to “giving extraordinary privileges to one special company at the exclusion of everybody else.”

DeSantis told CNBC that he’s the best friend Disney has because the corporation’s Florida theme park was able to stay open for business during the pandemic. On the other hand, Disney executives claim the governor ran a “targeted campaign of government retaliation” against it because of its opposition to his education bill, which gives parents the right to know what their children are being taught in schools.

Now Florida’s Attorney General is trying to get Disney’s case against the governor dismissed –- and DeSantis is offering the corporation a chance to end its running battle with the state.