Gov. DeSantis to Hold Presidential Campaign Rally at Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon

Despite escalating tensions between Florida’s Governor DeSantis and Disney, the Presidential hopeful is reportedly holding a campaign rally at the Walt Disney World Resort.

Credit: Disney Parks/Canva/Flickr: Naples

Over the last 15 months, there’s been no love lost between Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Disney. What began as a butting of heads between the Florida legislature and The Walt Disney Company over the legislature’s new Parental Rights in Education law in March 2022 has escalated since then to become an exhausting and mind-numbing display of political chatter and business-to-business back-biting and one-upping that has trickled down into the everyday goings-on in Florida with respect to the Walt Disney World Resort.

As expected, Governor DeSantis announced his bid to run on the GOP ticket in the 2024 U. S. Presidential election, and the also-expected barrage of attacks from all sides has only heightened, driving the wedge between Florida and Disney even deeper and growing into a wedge that threatens to divide far more than just Disney fans and Florida Republicans.

But now, in a strange turn of events, The Floridian Press reports, Gov. DeSantis has announced an upcoming campaign rally to be held at Disney World–specifically, at the Resort’s Typhoon Lagoon water park. According to The Floridian Press, DeSantis for President 2024 is hosting a rally at Disney’s water park on September 1, 2023, and the location of the rally goes along with the theme, as seen below in an image of an invitation mailed to, and received by, The Floridian Press.

The invitation reads as follows:

“Ron DeSantis for President cordially invites you to a fundraising bathing event, “Showering With Ron DeSantis” on September 1, 2023, at 8:00 p.m. at Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon Water Park, Lake Buena Vista, Florida 32830.”

Credit: Disney Parks

Per the invitation to the fundraising event, the cost is $2,800 per person and includes an “official campaign loofah.” The phone number listed on the invitation matches the phone number to the Office of the Governor in Florida, and the address listed is the correct address for the Capitol Building in Tallahassee, Florida. Javier Manjarres, a writer at The Floridian Press, as well as the new outlet’s publisher, says he reached out for comment about the invitation from the governor, but to no avail:

“We contacted both DeSantis’s campaign and executive office for comment on the invitation but did not hear back from either, so we could not confirm whether or not DeSantis would be attending the event wearing Speedos and bringing some rubber duckies and bubbles to go with the loofahs being offered on the invitation.”

The Press asserts that the invitation “was surely put together by one of President Trump’s supporters,” but with no comment from either side of the fence, we’ll just have to wait and see. It would certainly be a strange event in and of itself, but to be held at Disney World would almost surely incite unwelcome demonstrations and protests at Disney World, and the parks already had enough of that over the weekend.