Mickey Mouse battles ‘Trump rival’ Ron DeSantis | Abroad

The company is contesting the grounds on which the governor ended the special and advantageous status of the company in his state. The American press is already feasting on a fight between Mickey Mouse and the presumed future presidential candidate.

According to the local newspaper Miami Herald a long legal battle looms between one of Florida’s largest employers and the ambitious governor. Insiders are reporting that DeSantis will announce his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination next month. His rivals, including Donald Trump, follow this with suspicion, because DeSantis is seen as a very serious opponent.

The news that Disney had filed a lawsuit against DeSantis was immediately taken up by one of the other rivals for the White House, former governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley. Like many fellow party members, she finds DeSantis unwise because he goes against the party’s ‘pro-business policy’. “My home state will gladly accept 70,000 jobs if Disney wants to leave Florida,” she said.

The feud between DeSantis and Disney began last year when the company denounced its bill that would restrict education about sexual orientation and gender identity in Florida elementary schools. DeSantis was not pleased with that comment and threatened to build a prison next to Disney World, which is obviously bad for the company’s image. Or maybe he was building permits for a competing amusement park, DeSantis added.

In the case brought by Disney, DeSantis is accused of unlawfully using government policy “to punish a company for exercising its freedom of speech.” Because in the midst of the quarrel, DeSantis suddenly also decided to deprive Disney of all kinds of tax and new construction benefits.

Republican opponents of Ron DeSantis — including Donald Trump — are sure to take advantage of this dispute to portray DeSantis as some sort of fanatic determined to punish a private company for opposing one of its ostentation laws, which is to ban sexual orientation education. One of the most important and also expressed by him aspects of his campaign is his desire to attack so-called ‘woke’ companies. But if he has to withdraw his big words, it will weaken his candidacy, according to several commentators.

“I wonder if the people of Florida, who re-elected DeSantis less than a year ago, really want to spend taxpayers’ money fighting the nation’s largest employer,” the commentator writes. The Los Angeles Times. Going after Mickey Mouse remains a difficult matter, says The New York Times. “Brands of the same stature as Disney and with the same cultural influence have survived attacks in the past with few scratches.”

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