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Credit: Gage Skidmore, Flickr
In the weeks leading up to the 2024 election, dozens of companies saw the headwinds coming and attempted to curry favor with Donald Trump and his inner circle. According to the New York Times, Amazon, Apple, and NBC Universal bent their knees to get on Trump’s good side before the election.
Notably missing from that list was The Walt Disney Company. Whether or not he was asked to do so is unclear, but Disney CEO Bob Iger, a staunch Democrat, would not kiss Trump’s ring.
Now, with Trump’s resounding win in the election, his revenge tour is set to begin, and The Walt Disney Company is at the top of his list.
Trump is still fuming over what he perceived to be unfair treatment at the ABC-hosted debate. He claimed, without evidence, that the hosts were working to help Vice President Kamala Harris and, by fact-checking him, hurt his performance.
After the debate, Trump vowed to order the Federal Communication Commission to revoke ABC’s and other Disney-owned channels’ licenses. That appears to be just the beginning.
Film and television producer Evan Shapiro told The Wrap about Disney:
I would be very afraid if I had studio space in a state that was controlled by the party that clearly declared its loyalty to him. He doesn’t run the states, obviously, but one could imagine he’s going to have a conversation with the head of Georgia about the tax credit for Hollywood.
After Florida pulled its tax incentives for film production, Disney moved most of its productions north to Georgia. While Florida would be friendlier ground for Trump to get the tax breaks removed, he still has a lot of pull in Georgia.
While the business side will be an issue for Disney, the company’s creative teams are worried that certain subjects are now worried that certain subjects are off the table after a Trump win.
One documentary filmmaker told The Wrap:
You already see fear of getting behind anything related to race or immigration or reproductive rights, basically any social issues he has attacked. You are going to be seeing a lot of docs twisting social issues into true crime or action flix or celeb biopics.
Our conversations over things that affect people’s lives may become less serious, more toxic and divisive. Stories that need to get told may just not get told.
This newfound unease with sensitive topics could cause problems for Disney-owned Fox and FX, which tend to tackle edgy programming.
Whether it comes to programming or its business, The Walt Disney Company is going to have a long four years, but as it learned with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, money can get them out of almost any political situation.