‘So unnecessary’: Republicans pile on DeSantis over Disney

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and other potential GOP presidential hopefuls slammed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ handling of his ongoing feud with Disney this week.

“That’s not the guy I want sitting across from President Xi [Jinping] ... or sitting across from [President Vladimir] Putin and trying to resolve what’s happening in Ukraine, if you can’t see around a corner [Disney CEO] Bob Iger created for you,” Christie said Tuesday during a livestreamed interview with Semafor, adding: “I don’t think Ron DeSantis is a conservative, based on his actions towards Disney.”

DeSantis has been in a back-and-forth with Disney over the control over the thousands of acres that’s home to the Magic Kingdom and other theme parks. In February, Disney quietly, through a bureaucratic vote, gained back control of the Orlando-area park — though state officials didn’t learn of it until March. Disney’s move left DeSantis administration officials scrambling to respond, and the governor ordered an investigation into the California-based corporation. DeSantis is widely expected to run for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, but has not yet announced his bid.

Former President Donald Trump also criticized DeSantis’ feud with Disney on Tuesday, writing in a Truth Social post that DeSantis is being “absolutely destroyed by Disney.”

“Disney’s next move will be the announcement that no more money will be invested in Florida because of the Governor — In fact, they could even announce a slow withdrawal or sale of certain properties, or the whole thing. Watch! That would be a killer. In the meantime, this is all so unnecessary, a political STUNT! Ron should work on the squatter MESS!” Trump said.

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, who has strongly hinted at a 2024 bid, said DeSantis’ feud with Disney is becoming a tit-for-tat because it’s not going as he had planned.

“Look, this has gone from kind of going after a headline to something that has devolved into an issue, and it convolutes the entire Republican message,” Sununu said on CNN on Monday night. “I just don’t think — it’s not good for Governor DeSantis. I don’t think it’s good for the Republican party.”

The Nikki Haley-launched leadership PAC Stand for America PAC said in a statement that after the Florida governor’s latest bid to “one-up Mickey Mouse after a devastating and embarrassing blow to his efforts to rein in Disney World, Ron DeSantis has proposed some new neighbors to the amusement park – criminals.” The former ambassador to the United Nations launched her presidential bid in February.

The PAC’s statement references DeSantis’ comments Monday that Florida might consider building a prison next to land owned by Disney.

Bryan Griffin, a spokesperson for DeSantis, said in a statement that “there’s no need to respond to any critics” because DeSantis had a news conference on the matter on Monday, and the “governor very clearly laid out his philosophy behind his efforts.”

“Disney had extraordinary special privileges and an unfair special advantage compared to other businesses in the state,” Griffin said.

At that news conference, DeSantis announced that the GOP-controlled Florida Legislature would try to change state law to subject the company theme parks to new inspections, and said Disney was “not superior to the laws that are enacted by the people of the state of Florida. That’s not going to work, that’s not going to fly.”

In his Tuesday interview, Christie said that he’d make a decision in the next couple of weeks on whether he’ll run for president in 2024. Christie was seen speaking to more than three dozen of his former staffers and advisers on Monday night in Washington about a possible 2024 presidential run.

“If we go forward, we want all of you to be with us,” Christie told the room on Monday. “Thank you to all of you for everything you’ve already done for us. It’s been really, really an amazing ride. And you know what? It might not just be over yet.”

Christie said on Tuesday that the field for 2024 looked “vacant compared to what I dealt with in 2016.”