Orlando Sentinel

Trump & Disney: It’s not the first time politics sneaks into theme park

Reports: Banner hung briefly on Main Street train station before security intervened

- By Gabrielle Russon

You can’t escape politics — even at Walt Disney World.

On Sunday, a visitor brought a “Re-Elect Trump 2020” banner into the Magic Kingdom.

According to a video and social media reports, the banner hung briefly on the Main Street train station before security intervened.

The reaction seemed mixed. Some cheered, some booed.

Then security arrived, and the sign was taken down.

“That was awesome,” one visitor said as the man hurried out.

A Disney spokeswoma­n confirmed the incident occurred but did not respond to questions for more details.

The man’s social media video shows an apparent Disney security guard asking him to take the banner down after about a minute. Then he hurries out of park, stuffing the banner away and changing his hat so security won’t recognize him.

It’s not the first time partisan politics has been felt at Disney, a place meant to be people’s escape from reality.

In 2017, an online petition collected more than 15,000 virtual signatures in 2017 as some opposed adding Donald Trump to the Hall of Presidents, which debuted with the Magic Kingdom in 1971.

When the Hall of Presidents opened after a refurbishm­ent — and a talking animatroni­c Trump was a part of it — people sometimes interrupte­d the show, booing it, according to videos that surfaced.

Bob Iger — Walt Disney Company’s CEO who was at one point considerin­g a presidenti­al run in 2020, according to media reports — has clashed with Trump and occasional­ly been the subject of the president’s ire in tweets.

Iger quit his position on White House advisory councils after the president announced last year he was withdrawin­g the United States from the Paris climate accord.

He also voiced his opposition against the Trump administra­tion’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, which allows some people who were brought to the United States illegally as children to remain in the country without being deported.

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