As he prepares to announce his candidacy for the Republican primary for the 2024 presidential election this week, Ron DeSantis must fight against two Donalds: Duck and Trump. And so far, like the famous duck of animation studios, the governor of Florida is getting a lot of knocks and bumps. Disney canceled on May 18 the construction of a campus for its billion-dollar employees in Orlando which was to bring back some 2,000 jobs. It’s the latest salvo in an increasingly bitter battle between the 44-year-old governor and Bob Iger, the boss of the entertainment industry giant.
It all started in 2022 when the latter publicly criticized a law aimed at limiting the teaching of sex and gender education in nursery and primary schools. DeSantis, who for years has presented himself as an advocate of conservative, anti-abortion, anti-gay, anti-transgender values, has accused Disney of wokism, even though he celebrated his 2009 wedding at the amusement park. Since then, it’s been escalating. In retaliation, the elected Republican revoked the special status that the group had enjoyed for a long time, which granted it many advantages, in particular the self-management of the site. He transferred control of the land to the State and appointed a new Board of Directors to his boot, explaining: the company “has decided to saw off the branch on which it has been sitting for more than 50 years”. But discreetly, Robert Allen Iger, the boss of Disney, and his teams managed to retain, before the change of status, the authority to manage future development projects. Faced with a fait accompli, furious DeSantis is now seeking to have this agreement canceled. He has also imposed inspections on the safety of the installations and threatens to demand new taxes and to build a prison next to the park. All this against the backdrop of lawsuits on both sides. And no one seems to want to calm things down, judging by Disney’s decision to cancel the campus investment plan just before DeSantis’ candidacy was announced. The company justified itself by invoking “the change in economic conditions.” But the message is clear. It’s a serious slap in the face for DeSantis, who calls himself pro-business and boasts of his economic record.
A few months ago, the candidate still appeared to be the best placed to defeat Donald Trump. He was handily re-elected as governor, and presents himself as a Trump without the tweets and the chaos. In a private phone call to donors last week, he explained that given the former president’s unpopularity in key states, he was the only one who could win against Joe Biden. But its image has eroded. She first suffered from the incessant claws of Trump to which the governor refused to respond. It has also been abused by some of its policies, including this anti-Disney crusade criticized by several major Republican donors. Mickey’s group is not only popular with Americans, but it’s one of the largest employers in the state and a huge contributor to the local economy. In 2019, it attracted more than a million visitors… per week in Orlando!
On the left, Ron DeSantis. On the right, Disney boss Robert Iger.
© / AFP
Blessed bread for Trump, but…
Ron DeSantis is a “paper tiger”, according to the daily Politico. Evidenced by the criticism of its potential rivals in recent months. “I like Walt Disney, not Woke Disney,” said Mike Pence, the former vice president of the United States. “But I don’t think it’s in the interest of the people of a state for the authorities to go after a company because they don’t agree with it politically.” As for Donald Trump, the troubles of his adversary are holy bread: he can thus attack him on his strong point, his economic successes. “DeSantis has ‘got caught in a mousetrap’ and is totally destroyed by Disney,” he claimed in several statements, adding that “his weakness” had led to job losses and predicting that the group would not would invest “plus a penny in Florida”.
But the ex-president, even if he prances at the head of the polls, also collects a lot of pans and is far from sure of finding his place. Hence the sudden emergence of multiple contenders for the White House. In addition to DeSantis, Tim Scott, the senator from South Carolina, is due to announce his candidacy this week. Chris Sununu, the governor of New Hampshire is thinking about it, just like that of North Dakota, Doug Burgum, that of Virginia, Glenn Youngkin, and Chris Christie, the ex-governor of New Jersey. Not to mention Mike Pence. Who has the best chance? DeSantis, said John Gizzi, columnist at Newsmax, a conservative media group. “The face to face with Disney will not penalize him, but on the contrary will strengthen his rating with the Republican electorate because he is the only governor to have waged a cultural clash against a large company, without capitulating”, confides- he. “It may do him a little disservice to more moderate voters, but if they see him as the only alternative to Trump, they will vote for him.”