Republican Ron DeSantis used to be said to be like Donald Trump with a brain. But they repeated the phrase they have stopped doing it. The aggressiveness displayed by the governor of Florida in his war against Disney, as well as against gender policies, abortion or teachings on racism does not seem the most typical of an eminently cerebral politician.
Donald Trump's greatest rival in the Republican Party facing the 2024 presidential elections launched it against the Mickey Mouse company as a result of the explicit rejection of its managers to the law known as Don't Say Gay, which prohibited teachings on sexual orientation and gender identity in your state.
In revenge for the company's criticism, the governor ended the broad autonomy it had enjoyed since 1967 and replaced its corporate board with one appointed by the state institutions under its control.
As a result of this sabotage, the dream factory announced on Thursday its resignation from an investment of some one billion dollars (926 million euros) to build an office complex in Orlando that would house some 2,000 jobs.
"Given the considerable changes since the announcement of this project (two years ago), including new leadership and unstable business conditions, we have decided not to proceed with construction on the campus," said Disney World Park President Josh D' I love.
The resignation was not a total surprise. A month and a half earlier, Disney CEO Bob Iger had called DeSantis “anti-business” while he suggested that corporate investments in Florida were at risk. “Does the state want us to invest more, employ more people and pay more taxes, or not?” he said.
The news of the abandonment of the project in Orlando, which was to be developed next to the commercial and entertainment city Lake Nona Town Center, coincided with the advance on the official announcement of DeSantis' candidacy for 2024: it will be on the 24th, in virtual format and while donors and fundraisers for his campaign hold a meeting in Miami.
DeSantis also takes the step, days after having signed a battery of laws against gender-affirming treatments in children, against the use of pronouns that do not adhere to biological sex, against drag shows... And all of this soon of having prohibited abortion after six weeks of gestation in the state.
The Florida governor will join an already large list of Republican candidates headed by Trump and which already includes former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy. Others, like former Vice President Mike Pence, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, are considering running.
The experts and the statistics agree: the more competitors in the primaries, the better for Trump, for now first in the ranking of vote expectations.
The former president faces numerous judicial processes that in a healthy democracy and with reasonable leaders would probably bring him down. Is America's democracy healthy and reasonable?
