Mickey in the Clink? DeSantis Not Backing Down to Disney

April 18th, 2023 9:18 AM

“Don’t mess with Texas” should change to “don’t ef with Florida.” Governor Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) just cracked down against Disney … again. 

Desantis and the Disney company have been in a feud for quite some time now. The increasingly woke entertainment conglomerate tried to interfere with Florida politics when it objected to a DeSantis-backed bill to protect kids from hypersexualized content in schools. 

Most recently DeSantis has cracked down on Disney's fantasy financial situation. Walt Disney World resides in a special tax district called Reedy Creek and in essence, has been serving as its own government since 1967. DeSantis ended that and appointed the Central Florida Tourism Oversight Board to replace the Disney-run Reedy Creek Improvement District that formerly oversaw Disney World infrastructure. 

Disney tried to outmaneuver DeSantis when it “cut a special deal with the old oversight board it controlled before the new board, appointed by [DeSantis], took over,” Daily Mail noted. 

It became known that Disney secured approvals for the next 30 years for zoning, infrastructure and air-rights if the company chose to expand -- without approval from DeSantis’ selected board and without meeting the rules DeSantis had set.

“They thought that they could create some type of development agreements that would essentially render everything that we did null and void and put them in control in perpetuity for this. Well that's not going to work. That's not going to fly,” DeSantis said in a press conference Monday.

DeDantis went so far as to drop a casual mention of building a prison next to the amusement park. 

Disney owns undeveloped land near its current residence but DeSantis confirmed that Florida also owns that land. He toggled with a couple of ideas with suggestions from others like a state park or an extension of the amusement park. DeSantis added,  “Someone even said, like, maybe you need another state prison. Who knows? I just think that the possibilities are endless.”

The House of Mouse might want to start playing nice, if you ask me, since Disney’s development is going to be up to DeSantis’ hand-picked board if the new resolution takes effect.

Here’s what DeSantis said in a radio interview Monday morning:

At the end of the day, you know, they need to understand that they are not going to live under a different set of rules as everybody else. I mean, that's just the reality. And I think that the fact that they tried to do the secret agreements at the end, yes, they're gonna fail. But the fact that he would try that tells me that they haven't got the message yet,' he said when asked about a sit down. 

While Disney has clearly overstepped and abused its privileges, Twitter users are peeved with DeSantis. 

“DeSaster is a vindictive, mean, quasi-dictator. He is no better than Trump. He’s just less orange,” one user wrote. Another used the opportunity to bash DeSantis’ so called hatred of the LGBTQ folk saying, “DeSantis's vicious, long-established hatred of LGBTQ people is the primary engine of his feud with Disney, Florida's biggest taxpayer. DeSantis has the face of everyone in a lynch mob, howling with the most vengeful, ignorant bigotry.” Geez! The drama!

Disney seemed to reply when it tweeted an announcement of its first ever “Pride Nite” at DisneyLand in California. Newsom will love it. 

Honestly, who’s to say what will happen with this cat fight. All I can say now is pass the popcorn.