This isn’t an article I thought I’d be writing, but Donald Trump has left me no choice. The former president came out in support of Disney on Tuesday morning, slamming Ron DeSantis for fighting back against the woke multi-national corporation.

That comes a day after DeSantis announced that Disney broke the law in trying to undermine a new state-appointed board put in place to control the company’s special district. The Florida legislature is now moving to void all the last-minute deals made by the old board, and it appears they are on very solid legal ground in doing so.

Yet, in a statement put out on Truth Social, Trump bemoaned the battle against Disney, suggesting that the company would cut investment in Florida and sell all its properties (presumably to move Disney World to another state). As I’ll discuss below, that’s absolutely not going to happen, but first, here’s the post.

Trump surrenders again. Surrenders to donor money. Surrenders to Bud Light. Surrenders to trans. Surrenders to Disney. Weak! pic.twitter.com/sHPjQEAn4p

— Marcus (@MarcusHUSA) April 18, 2023

Trump taking Disney’s side in its battle against DeSantis happened just days after Donald Trump Jr. urged conservatives to end an ongoing boycott against Bud Light. In both cases, it appears the Trumps are more worried about donor money than winning important cultural battles. That’s not exactly comforting given Trump is running on fighting and cleaning up Washington, DC. If he can’t stand firm against a company as blatantly woke as Disney, then that calls into question his resolve to face down any serious cultural challenge. If you aren’t even willing to face down Disney, you aren’t going to defeat the deep state.

As to this notion that Florida is going to sell its properties so we should leave them alone, that’s cowardly talk. Disney World and its adjacent properties are twice the size of Manhattan. There are tens of billions of dollars tied up in everything that is built there. Not only would they never find a buyer, but they would never be able to afford to rebuild what they’ve already got in Florida. Never mind that there is essentially nowhere else in the country with the weather necessary except California, and Disney is obviously not going to have just one park in the least business-friendly states in the union.

The reality is that conservatives have near-total leverage over Disney. Trump is suggesting completely giving up all the leverage for nothing in return. Why? One might speculate that it’s because Disney executives donated tens of millions of dollars to Trump in 2020.

I realize pointing this out is going to anger some people who don’t want to face what’s happening, but Trump has a problem when it comes to being kowtowed by donors. The whole “rich people can’t be controlled thing” is a farce because Trump was never going to self-fund a 2024 campaign. I can only judge him by his actions, and the last week has been eye-opening.

The fight against Disney is too important, both politically and culturally, to give up on. There is no more important issue than protecting children. It is not a “political stunt” to try to do so, and if Trump thinks that, that’s a huge red flag.

I realize Trump is just doing the opposite of whatever DeSantis is doing, but that’s not an excuse. The Republican Party needs leaders who will fight the tough battles and follow through even when there are roadblocks and it’s not politically convenient to do so. If Trump isn’t going to be that guy, he doesn’t need to be the 2024 nominee. We’ll see if he offers a course correction.