Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis to Newsmax: Disney ‘Got Too Cute,’ ‘Party Is Over for Them’

Despite attacks from leftist and even some GOP critics, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis hailed the victory for Floridians over Disney’s outsized influence, saying the ideological leftist company “got too cute by half” and the self-governance “party is over for them.”

“You can’t have a situation where the legislature has spoken and one company just decides to contract out against the will of the people,” DeSantis told Newsmax‘s John Bachman in an exclusive 24-minute interview in the state capital Friday, which aired on “Eric Bolling The Balance.”

“At the end of the day, they just have to understand the party is over for them.”

DeSantis was speaking on the final day of the Florida legislative session and just before signing a state law that gives his board power to end Disney’s sweetheart self-governance deal.

“These development agreements under Florida law are subject to revocation, so I think they got too cute by half,” DeSantis told Bachman, rejecting Disney’s federal case claiming a violation of their First Amendment right of free speech.

“I think we’ll end up winning that legal fight. Disney should not govern itself. They should be held accountable.”

Ultimately, DeSantis vowed to look at Disney’s self-governance deal in the state because the company was attempting to wade into politics and the DeSantis-led effort to keep schools from indoctrinating children with gender ideology and talking to kids about sex with parental consent.

“They exercise a lot of political influence this town,” DeSantis said, hailing the fact the state has the law on its side for unwinding the self-governance deal.

“We beat them on that.

“That, ultimately is the most important part: Disney is not allowed to pervert the system to the detriment of Floridians. That’s a win for the Florida people.”

Allowing Disney the special privileges had to end, because it was tantamount to “corporate welfare,” according to DeSantis.

“Why should one corporation govern itself, be exempt from laws?” he asked. “It’s like the most egregious type of corporate welfare you can believe. So we said no.

“Clearly, you do not have a First Amendment right to corporate welfare,” he added.

And the “corporate media” and even GOP critics attempting to stand against DeSantis’ actions just do not have a leg to stand on, he continued.

“They have motivated reasoning,” DeSantis said of the media and Democrat attackers. “They don’t like Florida. They don’t like me, so they want to be able to color this in a way that is somehow attacking me.

“But they haven’t done their homework. They haven’t looked at the law.”

And, DeSantis concluded, Disney has not fulfilled the promises of the original agreement anyway.

“They have had 60 years of privileges that no other corporation in America has had,” DeSantis said. “Whether it was appropriate at the time to get them there, I don’t know. But I can tell you this: When that deal was done, it was done that way because Disney promised to build communities and actually build cities where people would be able to live and work.

“And they never followed through on that promise.”

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