Disney employs about 77,000 workers at its Florida theme parks. The spinoff economic impacts from the parks are enormous. Approximately 58 million people visit the parks each year. The parks are, in effect, a very large part of Florida’s international tourism brand.
Given that as background, you would think that DeSantis would be eager to put an end to his battle with Disney, but you would be wrong. He’s once again doubling down–even talking about putting a state prison next to the parks. It appears that he would rather drive Disney out of Florida than submit to a tiny bit of wokeness and humility. It’s utterly ridiculous.
If DeSantis is trying to sell himself as a reasonable, predictable alternative to Trump to the business donor class, this kind of arbitrary, despotic behavior towards a large and mostly beloved corporation is not exactly going to help the sales pitch.