After Disney filed a lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for his “targeted campaign of government retaliation,” right-wing media and prominent GOP members have factionalized into two distinct groups either praising or criticizing DeSantis for his moves against the company. 

In 2022, Disney spoke out against DeSantis’ “Don’t Say Gay” bill that banned discussion of gender identity and sexual orientation in schools. DeSantis then tried to eliminate the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which gives Disney some governmental autonomy, including going around contracts Disney had already made with the Florida government. Disney now says it is suing for an alleged “campaign of government retaliation” and infringement of the company’s First Amendment rights.

Rebecca Tushnet, the Frank Stanton professor of First Amendment law at Harvard Law School, told CNN that Disney “has a strong case, both under the First Amendment and potentially for violation of its property rights that the state is trying to destroy.” Others have pointed out that even if DeSantis is successful in his legal battle it will cost Florida taxpayers a lot of money to fight, and if he wins Florida could be on the hook for Disney’s billion-dollar bond debt.

However, DeSantis and right-wing media appear determined to go after Disney after a year of demonization. Much of the right’s reasoning for attacking Disney seems to be based on the perception that the company is “woke.” This rhetoric cannot be divorced from the made-up and anti-LGBTQ narratives that have been used to suggest Disney is responsible for predatory behavior toward children.

Other conservatives vying for the GOP presidential nomination like former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley have come out against DeSantis, attacking him as anti-business. However, the bigger fight brewing seems to be a surrogate war between Trump and DeSantis supporters in right-wing media as they either praise DeSantis’ treatment of Disney or dismiss it as a political stunt.

Supporting DeSantis’ crusade against “woke corporatism”

• In response to Haley’s offer for Disney to move jobs into South Carolina, Fox News’ Laura Ingraham posed this question on the April 26 episode of The Ingraham Angle: “These are the lines of the old guard versus the new populist wing of the party that seems to me to be the dominant and growing wing of the party for sure at this point. Do you agree?” 1776 Project PAC founder Ryan Girdusky agreed, calling Haley a “Republican Hillary Clinton. She will do or say anything to appease her donors, to appease the corporate people who have put her in positions of power.” He said she also wants to give “crony capitalism to corporations that push and peddle cultural Marxism on children.”
• On the April 25 episode of Fox News’ America’s Newsroom, Outnumbered co-host Kayleigh McEnany suggested a platform for DeSantis to become the GOP candidate in 2024, stating, “I think the subsidiary argument that needs to be made is: I'm going to cleave to the right of President Trump on abortion. He won't support federal legislation on Disney. He's criticized my policy there. I'm going to take on woke corporatism.” 
• An April 27 article for American Wire attacked Haley, arguing that “instead of siding with DeSantis who has stood up to the ‘woke’ entertainment giant for its support of groomers and perverts in classrooms, [she] offered up an invitation for the company to pack up and move north.”
• Townhall praised DeSantis for going after the “radical left” and pushed the Disney grooming narrative in an article written on April 26, fearmongering that “Disney has taken it upon itself to instill such sexually explicit material into the minds of minors by introducing transgender and gay characters in their films.”
• Media Right News published an April 26 article that called Haley’s comments a “cringeworthy appeal to be slightly less anti-woke than Florida,” suggesting that “it may sound to many that Haley is willing to put economic ventures above non-woke ‘morals’ for Disney’s billions.”
• RedState went even further with anti-Haley attacks, with the headline “Nikki Haley Nukes Her Campaign, Sides With Disney in Ridiculous Attack on Ron DeSantis.” The article also decried her “stunt” as “an absolutely cowardly move” and said she’s supporting “a company that openly brags about grooming children and hates normal people with traditional values.” 
• On April 27, conservative radio host Bill Mitchell tweeted, “DeSantis stands up to Disney. Trump bows to Disney. DeSantis stood up to Fauci, Trump bowed to Fauci. DeSantis drained the swamp, Trump bowed to the swamp.”
• Conservative talk radio host Jesse Kelly tweeted: “Watching some people on the Right back off of a child-grooming operation like Disney because of who they favor in the 2024 primary is exactly why you don’t EVER worship a politician. It turns you into trash overnight. Don’t turn into trash for a politician.” 
• DailyWire host Matt Walsh also condemned Haley, stating, “Not interested in any Republican who isn't on board with the fight against woke corporations like Disney and Bud Light, and doesn't understand why these battles are so important. Those Republicans need to be dumped on the side of the road and left in the dust. Useless and weak.”

Supporting Disney and/or questioning the merits of DeSantis’ attack on the company

• On the April 26 episode of Fox News’ The Story with Martha MacCallum, Fox media reporter Howard Kurtz acknowledged that “Disney is certainly woke” but also argued that “this whole feud has backfired” on DeSantis. Kurtz went on to note that “Disney may be right or wrong on the merits, but Disney and CEO Bob Iger certainly have the constitutional right to that.”
• As a guest on the April 23 episode of Fox News Sunday, former Arkansas Gov. and Republican presidential candidate Asa Hutchinson sided with Disney, contending, “Well, I don't believe whether you're on the left or the right of the political spectrum that the government should not be telling business what they can and cannot do in terms of speech. … I think he’s [DeSantis] getting it wrong on Disney.”
• Fox contributor Kellyanne Conway said DeSantis lacks a concrete platform, asserting that he “has just frittered away so much of the last five and a half months talking about woke this and Disney that, not putting out an economic plan, not having serious policy” on the April 20 episode of Fox News’ Jesse Watters Primetime. 
• Far-right activist Laura Loomer took the opportunity to side with Trump, tweeting, “I like Presidents who create jobs. Not wannabe presidents who destroy jobs, instigate layoffs, and make fake bills for the sake of generating press.” She also claimed that “it would be one thing if DeSantis actually cared about protecting kids. But it’s all manufactured outrage to generate buzz for his Presidential campaign.”