The Mouse That Roared

Abigail Disney has become a warrior for income equality, but will her radical plan lead to a fairy tale ending?

- Ash Carter

The first salvo in Abigail Disney’s crusade against the company that bears her name was fired somewhat impulsively in March, on CNBC’s Squawk Box. Disney was invited onto the program to talk about her support for a “multimillionaire’s tax” on households earning more than $5 million a year—households like hers. She was joined in lobbying against her own interests by 200 other ultra-high-net-worth individuals, including George Soros, Chris Hughes, and Liesel Pritzker Simmons. The group called itself the Patriotic Millionaires. “It’s the most obnoxious name in the world,” Disney says, “but it’s by design. Nobody ever forgets it.” Co-host Joe Kernen was duly provoked and repeatedly attempted to cast his guest as an enemy of human flourishing. “I was primarily trying to fend Joe off,” Disney says, “and then Andrew Ross Sorkin came in with a question about Bob’s salary out of the clear blue sky.”

The question Sorkin asked was, “Do you think Bob Iger is overpaid,” noting that later that day the company’s shareholders would be casting a nonbinding vote on the Disney CEO’s proposed compensation package, which included a $3 million base salary, a $12 million bonus, and another $20 million in stock options. (The package was approved.) Disney, who is a granddaughter of Roy O. Disney and a grandniece of Walt, says that while she “had no plan to answer that question, I did what I always do: I said what I thought.”