DeSantis not ‘beholden’ to Disney based on past donations, campaign says

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – Gov. Ron DeSantis’ 2024 campaign responded to scrutiny from NBC News surrounding his own state committee’s past reception of money from the Walt Disney Company.

NBC asked DeSantis press secretary Bryan Griffin the campaign’s response to the governor previously receiving thousands of dollars of both “in-kind” contributions from Disney, in the form of food and beverage, along with his state committee previously receiving $100,000 in donations.

In a statement provided to Florida’s Voice, not published in full by NBC, Griffin noted that DeSantis won the battle for the “innocence of children” by enacting parental rights legislation in the face of Disney’s opposition.

“This only goes to show that he is not beholden to any donor, no matter how big or powerful they are,” Griffin said. “This is why Ron DeSantis is the best candidate for president.”

The governor responded to the same criticism earlier this year.

“How utterly bizarre. I mean, somebody does a campaign contribution and you’re supposed to lay down for them? That’s not how I operate,” DeSantis said in June. “People can support me or not support me. I call them as I see them. And if you’ve supported me, but you’re wrong, I’m going to do what’s right.”

Griffin also lobbed attacks at former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, vying for the GOP nomination.

“Nikki Haley has consistently caved to her liberal billionaire donors and their far-left agenda by rolling out the red carpet for China, defending child mutilation, and refusing to protect girls from having to share bathrooms with biological males,” he said.

Earlier this year, Haley invited Disney to her home state of South Carolina.

“I’ll be happy to meet them in South Carolina and introduce them to the governor and the legislature that would welcome it,” Haley said.

A recent audit of Walt Disney World’s prior Reedy Creek Improvement District detailed the “most egregious exhibition of corporate cronyism in modern American history.”

Attorney Jason Gonzalez, who represents the new Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, said on Florida’s Voice with Brendon Leslie the audit proved malpractice from Disney with its former district employees and board members.

“We discovered the old Reedy Creek district – originally Disney itself – was directly giving free annual Disney passes to the Reedy Creek District employees,” Gonzalez said. “That’s the company is giving its regulators free stuff.”

The audit, obtained by Florida’s Voice, said Florida’s establishment of Disney’s own independent special district in 1967 was a “step stool” that “allowed Disney to tower over rivals and almost certainly dissuade others from even entering the arena of market competition.”

“Complacency and an absence of political will allowed Disney to use the public-private partnership to entrench and amplify its corporate power,” the report said. “That changed in 2023, when Governor DeSantis and the Florida Legislature decided to fix the anti-competitive arrangement between Disney and Reedy Creek.”

The audit explained that the company effectively had total control over the district that was meant to govern and regulate Disney via requiring board members own property in the district and paying off those property tax liabilities.

Disney reportedly temporarily deeded board members 5-acre plots of land to hold during their tenure.

The report flamed Disney for giving board members an “improper cash gift” and said these actions are “further evidence of their capture by Disney.”

It slammed Disney for creating the board to “serve Disney” despite “scores of other taxpayers also located in the District.”

“Disney also received control over two ‘cities’—the Cities of Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista,” it said. “Neither city has any employees, and each has only a handful of residents who are also Disney employees renting mobile home plots from Disney.”

“These arrangements gave Disney something unique in all of Florida: the power to govern itself, free from outside interference, through a pocket government that Disney controlled,” the audit continued.

Aside from Disney’s policies towards board members, the report said the company gave district employees repeated gifts and “lavish spending,” a sign to the auditors that the district was not meant to serve property owners or the district, but rather Disney itself.

It labeled those gifts to employees “bribes of public officials and employees.”

Litigation between Disney and the current DeSantis-appointed district is ongoing. The governor recently said he has “moved on” from the battle.

“Apart from Florida, Disney has had a lot of problems and I think that the skirmish they got in with these young kids [K-3 Parental Rights bill] – I think that’s a symptom of why they’re not doing as well,” the governor said to CNBC. “Parents have lost some confidence.”

Disney CEO Bob Iger had recently warned the company lost sight of its role in the industry to entertain rather than push messaging.

The company also said in an SEC filing that there are “risks” to its reputation and brands over the public’s perception of Disney’s stances on social issues.