In an interview with Time, Disney CEO Bob Iger discussed the tense relationship between The Walt Disney Company and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. DeSantis, who Iger accused of retaliating against Disney, has said that the State will win every battle against Disney and advised people to “buckle up” as he continues to escalate against Disney and Disney World guests.
In this latest interview, Iger presented softer, more measured comments with regard to DeSantis, saying that he would be “glad” to meet with the Florida Governor to find a middle ground in this increasingly one-sided feud.
Disney World opened just over 50 years ago. It was the vision and the dream of Walt Disney, probably the most ambitious thing he ever did—turning swampland in Central Florida into a business that employs over 75,000 people, that is visited by tens of millions of people every year, that is a major tourist destination in the United States, and for the state of Florida, that creates huge value for our company and its employees, and for the state of Florida itself. Our sole goal in Florida is to continue creating that value for all those constituencies. All we want is a relationship with the state that enables us to continue to do that. We have the wherewithal and we have the desire to continue to invest there to grow that business so that we can hire more people so that we can increase our attendance, and so that we can basically increase more value for the Walt Disney Company and for the state of Florida. It’s that simple.
…if the governor of Florida wants to meet with me to discuss all of this, of course, I would be glad to do that. You know, I’m one that typically has respected our elected officials and the responsibility that they have, and there would be no reason why I wouldn’t do that.
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A lot of Disney’s current ills are rooted in Iger’s decisions.
Withdraw the development agreement and life will go on.
Chapel started this but Iger has escalated it. If he didn’t do the underhanded things he did, this wouldn’t be at this point. The time for meeting has passed. Disney clearly doesn’t play fair and doesn’t intend to. Blow me, Bob