Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ legal battle with Disney has helped revived awkward old truths about the presidential hopeful and his history with the House of Mouse.
Reporting recently confirmed that despite his current animosity, DeSantis had in fact been married at the Disney World resort in Florida, stating in a 2023 memoir that it had “a nice wedding chapel”.
Now, a spar between a DeSantis’ aide and a pro-Trump journalist online this week left another claim hanging, that the Florida governor had even received substantial campaign contributions from the entertainment giant to help keep him in office.
KIMIMASA MAYAMA/POOL/AFP via Getty Images; Jaime Nogales/Medios y Media/Getty Images
The Claim
A tweet by journalist Laura Loomer posted on May 30, 2023, viewed 71,000 times alleged that Ron DeSantis received a “huge donation” from Disney.
The tweet included a screengrab of an article, text from which stated: “Records in the Florida Department of State’s campaign finance database showed that Disney Worldwide Services, Inc. made four contributions to the Friends of Ron DeSantis PAC from May 2019 to March 2021 for a total of $106,809.38. Those same four donations were shown in contribution records on the PAC’s website.”
Loomer, responding to a tweet by DeSantis aide Christina Pushaw, tweeted: “👀oh and what about these Disney donations to@GovRonDeSantis
“You want to dunk on Trump @ChristinaPushaw, but what about your boss taking huge donations from companies he claims are woke?”
The Facts
Relations between DeSantis and Disney soured in March 2022, when then Disney CEO Bob Chapek publicly spoke out against the Florida governor’s Parental Rights In Education bill, dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by critics.
Under its terms, teachers are banned from instructing children in school about “sexual orientation or gender identity,” from kindergarten through third grade, though in April 2023 it was announced this will be extended to all school grades.
The same month, Disney announced it was suing DeSantis, along with other Florida officials. The corporation alleged it had been targeted by DeSantis in retaliation for opposing his LGBTQ+ policies, thus violating its First Amendment rights.
However, the relationship between the company and the governor has not always been so frictive, as the tweet by Lauren Loomer alleges.
The text Loomer quoted in her tweet was, in fact, from an April 2022 Newsweek article, which stated how Disney had donated “at least $100,000” to a political action committee (PAC) linked to DeSantis before their legal battle.
The report referenced campaign contributions between March 2019 and March 2021 to the Friends of Ron DeSantis PAC, amounting to a total of $106,809.38.
The financial records confirming this can be found on the PAC’s website among a list of contributions.
Disney began retracting political donations in Florida in 2022, however, after the “Don’t Say Gay” bill was passed in the state senate.
“I truly believe we are an infinitely better and stronger company because of our LGBTQ+ community. I missed the mark in this case but am an ally you can count on—and I will be an outspoken champion for the protections, visibility, and opportunity you deserve,” Chapek said in a letter sent in March 2022 that announced the donation pause.
The contributions Disney made are but a fraction of the total donations the PAC has received. According to records provided by Transparency USA, up until December 31, 2022, the PAC has received more than $164 million.
Nonetheless, an amount as much as $106,000 is fairly arguable as “huge” and would rank the company among the PAC’s top payees.
So, despite the hostility between Disney and the Florida governor, there is verifiable evidence that the company has, in part, contributed toward DeSantis’ political career.
The Ruling
True.
According to reporting by Newsweek and verified against PAC contribution records, DeSantis received donations from Disney between March 2019 and March 2021.
However, these contributions dried up as Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill was passed, with Disney pausing its political donations in its wake.
FACT CHECK BY Newsweek’s Fact Check team