Disney Exec Phone Call Details Revealed & the Next Threat to Conservatives | Ron DeSantis

0:00Ladies and gentlemen, please give a warm welcome to the real Florida man, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, everybody. All right, so I said to the gov at dinner, I said, gov, what are the chances that I can get you to have some tequila on stage in front of a thousand friends? He said, do you have whiskey? Will McAllen 12 do? Will that do? Will that be all right for you?

0:31All right. You know, I'm not somebody that's out drinking very much. I've got like family. I got all this stuff. Occasionally, you know, my choice would be the scotch, which is fine. And I've learned all that. I've also learned a lot about cigars because we have so many good, all the great companies are headquartered here. I'm actually on the cover of Cigar Aficionado for this episode. So if you want to go buy that, we did a good interview. It's good. But so I got, so this would be it. Well, which is fine. And everyone's like, oh, yeah, you know, I was doing an event in Lexington, Kentucky one time.

1:05Great spot. Great people. And we're doing the stuff. And I'm doing my shtick. I'm answering the questions. Everything's gone. And then we're like, all right, break. Oh, Governor, you want a drink? And I'm like, yeah, just give me a scotch on the rocks. And everyone was quiet. And they all looked at me. And one's like, Governor, we drink Kentucky bourbon in Lexington. Point taken. Big mistake. Okay, here we go. All right, well, cheers, Florida man.

1:34So that right there, that really is why I wanted to do this show, because I wanted you guys to maybe get a little window into knowing the governor the way I've gotten to know him a little bit. And what he just told you about Cigar Aficionado, we're sitting at dinner, we had a bunch of people there, everyone's asking him policy, policy, policy. And he's like, guys, guys, I was on Cigar Aficionado, please. So Gov, all right. You got a little time left. Everyone in this room knows it's been a success. What else do you want? Yeah.

2:09What else? What else, my friend? You know, it's interesting how I travel the state. You know, I show up at Wawa and all these places. People talk. And it's good because you get to learn unfiltered from people. But it's just as kind of 2026 came in, I started to get people, oh, we don't want to lose you. Oh, so good. It's like almost like I'm like, guys, I'm still here. I still got, you know, I got a runway. I'm going to run through the day. And I kind of feel like Churchill, there was a Churchill vignette. He was past prime minister. He was being honored by the Women's Temperance Society of London.

2:48and the president of the club said, you know, Mr. Prime Minister, we admire your statesmanship, but we disapprove of your drinking habits. And she's like, it was in a room like this, she's like, if you added up all the brandy and wine and champagne that you have drank throughout your whole life, it would go three quarters of this entire ballroom. Churchill, you know, advanced in age, looked up, saw some space above and said, well, so much to do and so little time to do it. So we're running through the tape. We got a lot of stuff going on. Um, we are, we, I started talking about property tax about a year and a half ago and,

3:35and my view and part of it was that's the best thing we can do to help people with affordability. I wish I could control the price of gas or the price of groceries, but government can't do that. But the tax, local governments do. We have a constitutional mechanism to do it. So we started looking at the numbers, and it was in 2019 to now, local governments have taxed people$32 billion then and$60 billion now. And the thing is, is yes, we've had pop growth. Yes, we've had inflation, but not enough to double the amount of tax. And so we looked at it and said, okay, how do we do this? And we have this homestead system in Florida.

4:18If you're a resident, you could claim a homestead. It's a big benefit. We could eliminate all tax on homestead and they would still have 35 % more revenue than they had seven years ago. And so for me, I'm like, that's a vision that I wanna see. I would love for you to own your home and it not be used as a piggy bank for government.

4:42So we did it. And basically, I worked on this. We were working on it for many months. And we had a great thing that would have phased out the homestead taxes entirely. We provided money for local governments with our surplus. We did a lot. It was well thought out. Worked with the Senate in Florida on it. and they were acceptable. I didn't have a relationship with the Florida House. We've got a speaker who basically is against everything I'm for and it hasn't worked out well for him, but it is what it is. He took that position. So we didn't do it. So we called the special session a couple of weeks ago.

5:18I unveiled it and basically the House wouldn't pass it. So they ended up passing something else, which is good. It will be a tax cut, but it's not as ambitious as I had hoped. and I kind of was telling David Dinner, it kind of reminds me of the scene in Back to the Future where Marty is playing Johnny B. Goode at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance and he starts doing it. And, you know, this is 1955. People start to kind of really dig it and they're hopping. Then he goes into this like Eddie Van Halen guitar riff, like stringing, he's on the ground, like heavy metal stuff. And by the time he's done, everyone's just quiet.

5:59And they're just looking like, what the hell? And he goes up to the microphone. He's like, that may be a little bit too much for you, but your kids are gonna love it. And so I kind of feel like the vision that I staked out, I don't know that the legislature was quite ready for it. I think it's compelling. I think Florida is one of the only states where this is possible because we have so much of our tax base are people that aren't even residents here. We should take advantage of that and help our residents. So there is going to be on the ballot the biggest property tax reduction in the history of the state.

6:35So you guys will be able to do that. Not the same thing exactly that I had been advocating for and had been talking to people about. But I can tell you, had we not raised it a year and a half ago, the chance that anything would have been on the ballot would have been zero. So that's something that the voters may pass. My proposal would have passed. We researched it. We did a lot. But there is going to need to be a bill to implement this November, December at the end of the year. And we got to get that right and got to make sure. But I mean, imagine we have no income tax at the state level. Obviously, we do have sales tax, but, you know, our sales tax is six percent.

7:18California's is 8 % or 9 % and they have income tax, all this other stuff. And we exempt the consumers, the core things that you need. Then to rein in local governments and say you have this property that has constitutional protection, there would be no state in the country that could touch Florida for freedom if we're able to pull that off.

7:47What would you say has been the biggest challenge in the last five or so years, really since COVID started, in that Florida had this crazy influx of people? I think it's about 2.3 million people in about five years. It's extraordinary. It's the highest net in of any state. What were the challenges that were presented to you around that? Well, people, on the one hand, I think, and this is true with kind of a lot of people I run into in Florida. on the one hand there's a sense of pride that Florida is the place that people go to for sanity and freedom when they fed up with Chicago they go to Naples when they're fed up with New York City they go to Miami when they're fed up with San Francisco they come and so part of it is that that shows that we're doing some things right but on the other hand it's like you know we have all these people it's it's a lot to process and I definitely think oh there's a lot of folks out there that were just concerned about the pace of it.

8:43And they would tell me, governor, stop bringing people in. And I remind them, I'm not bringing anybody in. American citizens, you guys can go wherever you want to go. Because if I did control it, I probably would have some. There may be some I wouldn't let, but that's not the way it works. It's a free country. People vote with their feet. So being able to respond to that is not something that's easy. One, just on infrastructure. Fortunately, we run a big surplus. So I took about$7 or$8 billion from that. And we did infrastructure road projects that weren't scheduled to even start until next decade.

9:24We started them and we're going to deliver them 10 years ahead of schedule in most times. But that's just kind of to keep your head above water, right? In terms of housing, people that had a home in 2019 worth$350 ,000 in many parts of the state, that's now worth$700 ,000 or$800 ,000. Well, they say it is. I mean, look, I think the market, I think it goes up and sometimes goes down, right? But for younger people to be able to afford, especially in a high national inflation environment, you know, that's not the easiest thing. That's one of the reasons I gravitated to property tax reform, because I want people to be able to afford their first home.

10:06And imagine you being able to afford your first time you buy a home for$350 ,000 and you're not having to pay several thousand dollars to the government every year. That's a huge thing for families. So so there's been a lot of positives for it. I mean, our economy has grown from one point one trillion to one point eight five trillion just in my tenure as governor. So that's about a 70, 75 % increase in Florida's economy, very short period of time. If you look at the income that has moved into Florida since I've been governor, that's more income adjusted for inflation than has ever moved into any American state in the history of the republic.

10:48And it's not even close. So there's benefits to that, but then there's also challenges. So I think we've done a good job trying to manage that, trying to accommodate it. And there's been a lot of positives for it, but there are absolutely issues. Also, environment. I mean, people need housing, right? You have to increase the supply. But at the same time, you don't want the state to be a concrete jungle. You want to preserve some of the great spaces. And so we did the Florida Wildlife Corridor from down in like Naples all the way up the spine of the state. We've put hundreds of thousands of additional acres into conservation.

11:27We've done things to be able to ensure agriculture land stays in agriculture and doesn't end up a housing development. And so those that required some funds, it required some legislative action. But all in all, I think we've done a really good job on doing that. But yeah, I mean, those are good problems to have because the state's doing well, but they are definitely challenges. Are you ever worried that post-Ron DeSantis, Florida will be a victim of its own success and that people will get, you know, they'll get fat on all the goodness and that we'll end up bringing back a lot of the ideas that have been purged from this place?

12:06So I'm not one to worry. I mean, it is what it is, right? I mean, voters make decisions. They put whoever they want in. But I will say this. we had the last year and a half you know we've had a Florida House of Representatives that their number one thing was to try to oppose me nobody voted for that nobody even knows who a lot of these people are right so why were they doing that well the leadership they were kowtowing to people outside of the system who don't have Florida's best interests at heart certainly didn't want to see me do well for a variety of reasons. And so if a state that went from a one point state to a 20 point state from bare majorities to super majorities, all from 300 ,000 more Democrats when I got elected in 18 to now 1.5 million more registered Republicans, no one has seen anything like that.

13:03If the response to that is to try to throw sand in the gears of what's been successful, that is not a good sign. I think Florida has a challenge because these guys go up to Tallahassee. It's so far removed. A lot of times people don't follow what's going on up there. And there is, I think, some negative incentives. So I just, I think that you may not see a continuation of what I've done. I'm not saying you're going to see radically left. But when you have super majorities, what happens is people that have more liberal ideas know they can't get elected as a D, so then they become part of Republican, right?

13:45Because if you win the primary, you will get elected in most parts of the state now just by having the R buyer name. Didn't used to be that way, but that's how it is now. So I think some of these people have figured that out. And so how conservative is this going to be in the future? I don't know. Is there danger that we kind of go off in a more corporatist direction or some of the things that I think voters have rejected over the years. I definitely think that there's a danger that that happens. But ultimately, when voters hold these people accountable, things tend to work out. One of the things that I think has happened, and look, I mean, not to say it's all, but I led from the time I got in, I was pushing.

14:27I was leading. I was pushing the envelope. I was taking the incoming. We didn't really need I didn't need to have pressure groups because I was out doing it. And so I think what's happened is that's what people have kind of gotten used to. You don't need to necessarily come to the governor's mansion and protest because to do properties. I'm out there doing it, right? You didn't need to come do that for redistricting map. I called the special session and we got it done.

14:56Well, I do think it's helpful to have folks that are holding their elected officials accountable. So we just need to make sure that we rediscover. But when you have supermajority, when you have this, the ideological, I think, lines can blur a little bit. And to me, our D is not as important as what are you actually standing for underneath that label. We stood for bold colors, not pale pastels. We took on the corporatists. I mean, I ran on Everglades against Big Sugar and won. I ran and fought Big Pharma and won. We fought the medical industrial complex during COVID and we won. We beat the DEI cartel.

15:42We're the first state to eliminate that and we won. And so those are things that, you know, you get out of your, it's not comfortable if you just don't want to make waves, right? But that's ultimately, I think, what it takes. So we've shown, but here's the thing. When I got in, it was a one-point state. People said, hey, man, I know you're strong. I know you're conservative, but you got to be careful. Florida's a 50-50. You don't want to upset the apple cart. And that was, I understood that advice, but ultimately I rejected it. And what we showed is when you do do bold colors, when you're leading, when you're getting out in front and delivering results, not only is that more conservative, it's also better politics.

16:30Not always immediately, certainly during COVID, I got killed for a long time, but ultimately when people see the success, they go. You've never seen a 1.8 million voter registration shift in a state in the history of the United States of America in a six-year period, eight-year period. It just doesn't happen. And it didn't happen because, oh, we have good voter registration or we did that. No, it was organic. It was people that were Miami. A lot of people switched, people moving here, all this other stuff. But it was all based on leading and delivering results. and that's a formula that will work in Florida in the future and in other states.

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17:59This is a slight sidebar, but sign of the times, Gov. I think a little of that static we're getting, I think it's from your aura ring. Something's going on there. I really think that's what's happening. You know, my wife got me this and it's funny because, um, you know, I'll like, you know, like run on the treadmill and it's like, okay, you did. Okay. I walk 18 holes of golf. This thing is the happiest thing in the world. It loves that. So, and then like, it hates my sleep. He says, I don't sleep enough. Um, because you know, I fall asleep at midnight, wake up at six kind of deal there. And it just doesn't like that says your sleep's not deep enough and all this stuff.

18:32So I kind of have a love hate relationship with this thing. Yeah, I think we all do. Well, I think I know the answer to this question, but you just mentioned some of the big fights that you chose. When you went all in on fighting Disney, I mean, you're not like most of these other politicians. You're not worth a gajillion dollars. You're still at the beginning of your career in a lot of respects. Was there any moment as the entire machine was crashing around you that you're going, you know, I am going against basically one of the biggest corporations in the world and they're throwing everything at me and mainstream media.

19:07Was there any moment that you were like, wow, maybe I bit off too much? No. And the reason just is people weren't talking about it at the time. It kind of came out last. You know, my wife and I actually got married at Disney. Wasn't my idea. Her family was big into it. They've got a very beautiful chapel right there. So it's not like, and I just told her when she said that's what they want to do. I said, listen, you know, I'll back what you want to do, but I do not want to see Mickey showing up with any. I was like, I want it to be traditional. And it was, it was great. But anyways, it wasn't like I was coming at it from a negative position on Disney.

19:44And during COVID, no one did more to help save Disney and Universal and them by having the parks open here when they were closed in California for over a year. So, and I always, I had a good relationship, but you know, this was the issue. You know, we're talking about like these young kids and the education and the agenda. We just wanted to have school be school. We wanted kids to be kids. And so we felt very strongly about that. But the then CEO called me, was like, oh, man, I'm getting a lot of stuff. And he was complaining about the legislation. I said, that's not in the legislation. I was like, you can't go by narrative.

20:17You got to go by facts. I was like, but here's what my advice to you is stay out of it. You're going to take flack for 48 hours. It'll pass. It'll sign it. And then everyone will forget about it in two weeks. And I think that was the right advice. And they chose to come out to try to do that. And, you know, for me, I was just like, you know, I had already been through the COVID ringer. And so the COVID was more intense than anything. So Disney, I was like, I'm not worried about this. And so I'm like, I got to do what's right. Yeah, they always win these political fights in Florida, but we'll be okay.

20:49And so we signed the legislation. They made a big mistake because after the bill was signed, they should have just walked away. And what they said is, you know, we're going to do everything in our company's power, which is very significant, you know, to repeal the law, strike it down in court. And they listed all these things. And I'm just like, you know, I mean, first of all, I don't think that's their fiduciary obligation to their shareholders. It should be to earn returns for their shareholders, not try to fight Florida on our education policy. But nevertheless, but they happen to be the beneficiaries of this antiquated, but very useful for them system where they were given control of this local government.

21:30So we're here in Miami-Dade County. You know, you got the county government. You got that. Disney had its own government and basically would run it. And massive tax benefits, massive competitive advantage, not good policy. I understand why they did it to lure Disney there in the 60s. They were supposed to build homes and then there would be voters there who would elect people and that didn't end up happening. It just was controlled by Disney. So we said, all right, you can come after us, but we are not going to subsidize you attacking our policy. And so we yanked the local government away from them, put it under state receivership.

22:12And we're better off as a result of that because my board members cut taxes for all the local businesses. Disney's now pitching in, paying their fair share, all this stuff. And guess what? People said that they were going to leave Florida. You're going to see Space Mountain on I-75 going to Columbus, Ohio or something like that. No, didn't happen. In fact, they're investing$18 billion into their parks in Central Florida. So it was the right thing to do. And I'll tell you, apart from that particular skirmish, this was 2022, I think. That was peak woke in this country. And their corporate wokeness was totally out of control.

22:53So you had some of the biggest companies on the planet, like BlackRock and some of these, they were pushing this ESG agenda. They were pushing DEI. Really, really bad policies. They couldn't enact those policies in legislatures, but they're trying to use corporate power to be able to impose that on society anyways. And up to that point, I think a lot of the people in business, they weren't necessarily on board with that agenda, but it was the path of least resistance. If they didn't do DEI or they didn't do ESG, they'd have the left come. The activists would protest them. If they did it, the right never said anything.

23:32So I was the first one on the right to actually show some of the corporations, you know, you want to do your job and stick to your businesses fine, but you're getting in our arena. If you're pushing left and you're trying to impose this on our society, I'm fighting back and we're going to win. and right then and there when we had that fight a lot of these corporate execs were able to go to their board of directors and say listen i know you want dei i know you want you but i don't want to be the next disney i don't want to end up happen what happened in florida so that was the turning point to defeating corporate wokeness all right let's let's shift for our remaining 10 minutes and do do some more of the fun stuff we're going to swap the mic real quick thank you what's What's been the most fun for you doing this whole thing?

24:21I know you mostly want to talk baseball. Like if we were really like if you were doing your happiest, what could I do for an hour? It would probably be playing baseball and you were a hell of a player. Now it's golf because, you know, I played in the congressional baseball game back when I was I was a three term U.S. congressman. I've totally recovered from that experience. Very clear thinking. No problem. But, you know, I was, you know, in my I was 33 when I got elected, 34. I'd played baseball through college. And so these guys like, Oh, we got a player. And you know, I could still hit and everything.

24:54But when you're not used to like sprinting to first, like you would do, it's just kind of fast twitch. And that's how you do. So like, but golf is easy, because I can go out there and do it and not. But I'll tell you, being able to travel the state, it's a, it's really unique place. We have probably five different regions that could be their own separate states. You know, Miami-Dade, very unique part of the United States. We've got all these different places. So to be able to go see all that, see how beautiful the state is, meet so many people over the years has been really fun. Now, it's interesting.