The office of Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis ripped Disney a new one on Thursday after the company, which at one time was a family-friendly producer of cutting-edge entertainment and beautiful storytelling, made an announcement revealing that it had decided against building a billion dollar office complex due to “changing business conditions.” DeSantis put out a statement saying that Disney announced this particular project quite some time ago and “nothing ever came of it.”
And here the higher-ups at Disney thought they were clapping back at DeSantis and the state’s majority Republican legislature, only to have the whole thing backfire right in their faces. You’d think they would have learned by now not to mess with DeSantis, but apparently that isn’t the case.
“Josh D’Amaro, Disney’s theme park and consumer products chairman, announced that the company was pulling the plug on the $1.3 billion Lake Nona Town Center, for which the company was going to relocate approximately 2,000 jobs from liberal Southern California to Orlando, Florida,” the Daily Wire reported.
“Given the considerable changes that have occurred since the announcement of this project, including new leadership and changing business conditions, we have decided not to move forward with construction of the campus,” D’Amaro stated in an email sent out to employees. “This was not an easy decision to make, but I believe it is the right one.”
Disney seemed to blow their top after the Republican governor took away its control over a special tax district that was built in the 1960s, which allowed the corporation to have special benefits that no other company in Florida has been allowed to have.
“Disney announced the possibility of a Lake Nona campus nearly two years ago. Nothing ever came of the project, and the state was unsure whether it would come to fruition,” DeSantis’ press secretary Jeremy Redfern went on to say. “Given the company’s financial straits, falling market cap and declining stock price, it is unsurprising that they would restructure their business operations and cancel unsuccessful ventures.”
Over the course of the last several months, the Disney corporation has laid off a total of 4,000 employees and is making plans to lay off a few thousand more due to financial struggles. And here we thought Disney was the “happiest place on earth.” Guess that’s not the case anymore. Go woke, go broke.
It’s not just a clever slogan. It’s a principle that many in this country live by. Those who are sick and tired of woke garbage being shoved down their throats and seeing their favorite franchises — looking at you Star Wars — obliterated by bad storytelling that puts agenda over quality entertainment, are now opting not to spend their money on Disney.
Here’s more from the DW report:
Disney has sued the state of Florida, claiming that they are the victims of “a targeted campaign of government retaliation,” and Disney CEO Bob Iger implied during a recent earnings call that the company may retaliate in response to its feud with the governor by withholding development plans in the state, asking, “Does the state want us to invest more, employ more people, and pay more taxes, or not?”
D’Amaro said later on in his statement, however, that the company still has plans to invest $17 billion in Walt Disney World and create 13,000 jobs there over the next decade.
While some Republicans have tried to attack DeSantis over his battle with Disney, the company is not popular with Republican voters, according to recent polling on the topic.
I want to put Disney's unpopularity with Republicans in perspective:
64% of Republicans view Disney negatively.
Those are Liz Cheney numbers. pic.twitter.com/kOO0ETU1DC
— Giancarlo Sopo (@GiancarloSopo) May 18, 2023
Let’s hope that, eventually, after a long period of time of financial suffering, Disney’s board of directors fires all the powers-that-be and hire new people who will return the corporation back to being apolitical and recalibrate the creative direction to focus on family friendly, high quality content.
And, I might add, that includes wiping out the disastrous Marvel Phase 4 films and series, plus the Star Wars sequels.
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