Walt Disney Co. (DIS) -) CEO Bob Iger and his company are no strangers to dealing with political backlash lately, despite trying to avoid it.
Iger has indicated he's not looking for controversy, to make new enemies or do anything that would harm the Disney brand and discourage its audience. But he must deal with controversy anyway.
Related: Walt Disney remaking iconic and beloved theme park ride
Iger and Disney first felt the wrath of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis after Iger predecessor, former Disney CEO Bob Chapek, in 2022 spoke out against the right-wing governor's HB 1557, the "Parental Rights in Education" bill or Don't Say Gay Legislation.
After Chapek left his CEO position at Disney in November 2022, DeSantis retaliated against Disney by dismantling Disney's Reedy Creek Improvement District, the special district that gave Disney governance over the property on which Disney World sits near Orlando, Fla. DeSantis created a new special district controlled by his own hand-picked board.
DeSantis has said that he was just trying to level the playing field and take away Disney's special advantages. But that didn't explain the fact that Florida has thousands of other special districts, including one recently created for Comcast's (CMCSA) -) Universal Studios.
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Musk retaliates against Bob Iger and Disney
Tesla (TSLA) -) CEO Elon Musk also seems to have retaliated against the Walt Disney Co. and Iger when Disney stopped advertising on Musk's social media company X, formerly Twitter, after he published comments on the site Nov. 15 that many people considered anti-Semitic. Musk had agreed with a common conspiracy theory against Jews.
"I have a lot of respect for Elon ... and we know that Elon is larger than life in many respects and that his name is very much tied to the companies he has either founded or he owns," Iger said during an interview with New York Times' Andrew Ross Sorkin at a Dealbook Summit Event.
"By him taking the position that he took in quite a public manner, we just felt that the association with that position, and with Elon Musk, and X was not necessarily a positive one for us and we decided we would pull our advertising."
Musk apologized for agreeing with the tweet but also said that companies that don't want to advertise on the platform should not. "If somebody's going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go f*** yourself."
And that's what Disney did. It stopped advertising with X, which prompted a further response from Musk.
Tesla removes Disney+ from vehicles
Tesla informed Disney last week that it would remove its Disney+ app from the Tesla Theatre in its vehicles without giving a reason why, Electrek reported. Days later, Tesla said it would only remove the app from Tesla owners who had never used the app before.
Certain Tesla owners have said that the Disney+ app is no longer in their Tesla Theatre, though some car owners who use the app still have it in their cars, the report said. Tesla originally added the Disney+ app to the Tesla theatre in 2021.
