Is Bob Iger Shadow-Running for President in 2028?
I’m confident you’ve heard the news by now.
The Walt Disney Company just canceled its Lake Nona development, one of the last remaining Bob Chapek initiatives.
Photo: Central Florida Development Council
Once again, current Disney CEO Bob Iger has punished Florida Governor Ron DeSantis with negative headlines.
Some analysts are already painting this story as Iger playing DeSantis for a patsy. And his continued dominance over a top politician causes me to wonder.
Photo: Getty Images
Is Bob Iger shadow-running for President of the United States in 2028?
What Just Happened?
In early February, I mentioned the Lake Nona project, whose fate had been in question recently.
Photo: Disney
At the time, I stated, “This new filing suggests that Disney has decided to move forward with Lake Nona.
“At a minimum, Disney will file the paperwork and evaluate how much bureaucratic pushback they receive in the process.”
Photo: CNBC
Here’s the context. Bob Chapek once got along quite swimmingly with DeSantis. In fact, early in his term, DeSantis gave two different carve-outs to Disney.
The company wasn’t subject to a Big Tech bill due to a special exemption. Also, Florida provided Disney with $570 million in tax breaks for Lake Nona.
Notably, many Disney workers weren’t enthusiastic about the idea, which Chapek didn’t mind.
Photo: centralfloridaprimerealestate.com
For whatever reason, the former CEO didn’t love Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI) the way you would expect a former Disney Parks Chairman to feel.
Instead, this move kinda felt like a shot across the bow to break up parts of the existing WDI infrastructure, as did the hiring of an outsider to run Imagineering.
Disney informed Imagineers that many of their jobs were moving to Florida, with or without them.
Photo: Matt Stroshane/Courtesy Disney Parks
That message alone speaks volumes about Chapek as a leader and decision-maker.
When Bob Iger returned, he prioritized the creative process once again, just as he had during his first tenure as Disney CEO.
As part of that strategy, Iger feels strongly that creatives should remain in close proximity.
Image: Disney
When Disney asked workers to return to the office an extra day each week, that philosophy drove his thinking.
More importantly, the existence of Lake Nona felt antithetical to Iger’s beliefs. He’s probably wanted to kill the project since November.
Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
For a company like Disney, that’s challenging to do, though. It had filed the paperwork for the Zasu Civil Plan!
DeSantis Punched Down on Disney in 2022
In March 2022, Ron DeSantis plotted to gerrymander Florida’s congressional map. The governor recognized the glaring political spotlight of such a move.
Photo: The Wall Street Journal
Not coincidentally, DeSantis attacked Disney with the dissolution of the Reedy Creek Improvement District.
The redrawing of the congressional map occurred during the same special legislative session as the Reedy Creek vote.
Photo: Getty Images
The governor used the headline-grabbing Disney move to distract away from the politically motivated move to disenfranchise many voters.
DeSantis attempted this bait-and-switch against Chapek, whom he deemed the perfect foil for this action. Chapek was in over his head politically.
Iger Uses DeSantis’ Trick Against Him
(Photo by Kimberly White/Getty Images for Vanity Fair)
Now that Iger is back, the situation is different. Many who have followed Iger’s career know that he planned to run for President in 2020.
Rupert Murdoch knew this as well. The owner of Fox News sold Disney most Fox media assets.
Robert Iger and Rupert Murdoch
credit: Disney
In exchange, Murdoch secured a promise that Iger would stay through at least 2020. Yes, Rupert Murdoch himself took Iger off the board for the 2020 election.
Presidential aspirations never really die, though. And I suspect Iger has discovered a hidden door to the national political stage.
(Photo by Jerod Harris/Getty Images for Vox Media)
Ron DeSantis famously wants to run for President. At the time of publication, he hasn’t announced it yet because, well, he’s suffered recent political humiliation.
Iger has wiped the floor with DeSantis since Disney’s CEO returned.
Seriously, if this were a boxing match, the ref would have stopped the fight long ago.
The most recent move emphasizes this point.
Bob Iger wanted to close Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, which suffered from high prices and a limited target demographic.
Iger knew he’d get crushed for this announcement, though. So, he smoothly canceled Lake Nona, which he knew would grab headlines.
Photo: Disney
Then, Disney quietly revealed the permanent closure of the Star Wars Hotel.
Disney fans will spend the next several months talking about that as Galactic Starcruiser’s voyages wind down in September.
The national media has jumped on the Lake Nona story and won’t care about anything else.
Photo: Hollywood Reporter
Iger has framed the narrative such that DeSantis just cost Florida 2,000 jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in salaries, taxes, and other revenue over the next decade.
In short, Iger has whupped DeSantis yet again.
Is Bob Iger Shadow-Running for President in 2028?
Image: Disney
Here’s what we know. Iger has always wanted to run for President, but his age and a series of Fox-related events precluded him from doing so.
Everyone presumed Iger would be too old to run in 2024, much less 2028. Also, we know Iger’s politics, and they align with those of the sitting President.
As such, 2024 seems like it’s off the table. In 2028, Iger will be 77, which would have seemed like a prohibitive age only a few years ago.
However, the two likeliest candidates for the 2024 race are Biden, who is currently 80, and Donald Trump will be 78 during the key part of 2024’s election season.
Moreover, the likeliest Republican candidate for 2028 is currently Ron DeSantis, who still plans to run in 2024.
The only reason why the governor hasn’t announced yet is because he has gotten eviscerated on the national stage by Disney/Iger.
Florida’s governor has already delayed his announcement once already and may need to do so again after this latest debacle.
Now, let’s extrapolate that thought process for 2028. Who would be DeSantis’ worst nightmare for that campaign?
The answer is Bob Iger, who has spent the body of 2023 making DeSantis come across as a lightweight desperately trying but failing to move up in weight class.
Photo:Congress
I suspect that Iger has recognized an opportunity here. He sees weakness in an overmatched opponent and perceives it as a chance to get more famous at DeSantis’ expense.
We’re currently witnessing a master class in political acumen, but the person demonstrating it is NOT the one who wants to run for President this cycle.
Photo: Natacha Rafalski on Instagram
Iger is getting over at DeSantis’ expense, and it could cause staggering political ramifications.
At a minimum, Disney fans are having a lot of fun right now.
Photo: MickeyBlog
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