Many Republican Americans don’t think very positively about the company

By Gitanjali Poonia

When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently ramped up his fight with Disney, several top Republicans spoke against him.

Former President Donald Trump, DeSantis’ top competition in the 2024 presidential election, posted on Truth Social last month, saying that the Florida governor “is being absolutely destroyed by Disney,” which, he added, might announce “a slow withdrawal or sale of certain properties.”

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California, who has been working with President Joie Biden for months to strike a deal on the debt ceiling, also had some advice for DeSantis — “sit down and negotiate,” as he told CNBC. Meanwhile, Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who is also running in 2024, invited Disney, and their “billions of dollars,” to her state.

But there are others like U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr who support DeSantis’ efforts. As Barr said at CNBC CEO Council Summit, “For me, what is important here is that Disney was getting special privileges,” adding that the company should be “treated like everyone else.”

Many Republican Americans also don’t think positively of the company and even support the fight DeSantis has taken on.

What do Americans think about Disney?

An Axios Harris Poll, that ranks the reputations of different corporations using the framework Harris established in 1999, found that Disney ranked as the fifth most polarizing brand out of 100 others.

The poll measured the trust, character and trajectory of the Mickey Mouse company, as perceived by Democrats and Republicans.

While this score jumped by 7.8 to 80.3 for Democrats, the same score sunk from 75 to 61 for Republicans. For Disney, the average gap between Democrats and Republicans was 19.3, compared to the survey’s overall average of 4.4.

A partisan trend emerged this year, even though the company’s reputation score has been going down since 2017, as Axios noted.

The company has been making changes that have earned scorn from right-leaning voters and politicians.

https://www.deseret.com/2023/5/29/23737483/republicans-on-disney