Disney war

Why Ron DeSantis thinks his feud will pay off

- Richard Luscombe

It has become one of the most compelling Disney stories ever told, but so far without a happily ever after. In fact, the entrance this week of Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis into the race for his party’s presidential nomination only adds fuel to his raging feud with the theme park business over diversity and LGBTQ+ rights.

The battle is simultaneously an essential ingredient for the culture war agenda that DeSantis believes will win him the White House in 2024; and a headache he could well do without as he attempts to prove his credentials as a fiscally responsible conservative.

From the moment Disney’s bosses dared to speak out in March 2022 against DeSantis’s notorious parental rights in education bill, the so-called “ don’t say gay” law that outlaws discussion in Florida’s classrooms of sexual orientation and gender identity, the governor climbed aboard a rollercoaster he does not seem to want to get off.

“ DeSantis is running for president and looking for issues that will appeal to potential Republican primary voters all across the country,” said Aubrey Jewett, a long-time Disney observer who is a professor of political science at the University of Central Florida .