Ron DeSantis F–ked With Disney, and Disney F–ked Back

Ron DeSantis loves to declare that Florida is the freest state in the nation, a deeply ironic claim given that Floridians are consistently punished for disagreeing with him. One of the best examples of this was his response to Disney speaking out against his bigoted “Don’t Say Gay” law, which was to dissolve the company’s self-governing status and force it to, among other things, pay more taxes. Soon thereafter, the Florida governor installed five handpicked individuals to Disney’s oversight board, including the “founder of a right-wing parent group, a Christian nationalist, and a deep-pocketed Republican Party donor,” according to The Guardian. But unfortunately for DeSantis, he appears to have been outfoxed by Mouse-town.

Per the Associated Press:

Board members picked by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to oversee the governance of Walt Disney World said Wednesday that their Disney-controlled predecessors pulled a fast one on them by passing restrictive covenants that strip the new board of many of its powers. The current supervisors of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District said at a meeting that their predecessors last month signed a development agreement with the company that gave Disney maximum developmental power over the theme park resort’s 27,000 acres in central Florida.

The new supervisors replaced a board that had been controlled by Disney during the previous 55 years that the government operated as the Reedy Creek Improvement District. The new board members held their first meeting earlier this month and said they found out about the agreement after their appointments. “We’re going to have to deal with it and correct it,” board member Brian Aungst said Wednesday. “It’s a subversion of the will of the voters and the Legislature and the governor. It completely circumvents the authority of this board to govern.”

DeSantis does not appear to have commented on the news yet, but there is presumably fiery rhetoric and retribution headed Disney’s way.