(NewsNation) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday shrugged off Disney‘s lawsuit against him as politically motivated during a news conference in Jerusalem.
In a scathing complaint Wednesday, Disney accused the governor of orchestrating a targeted campaign against the multibillion dollar company.
Disney’s lawyers say the company “regrets that it has come to this.” The company also accuses DeSantis of “a relentless campaign to weaponize government power against Disney in retaliation for expressing a political viewpoint.”
Disney is asking the court to rule that the legislative declaration that created an oversight board for the park is unlawful and unenforceable, along with other legislation introduced by Republican legislators to target Disney. The company is also asking the court to uphold contracts Disney approved before the board was seated.
Disney’s lawsuit lays out the park’s history in Florida, including the number of visitors the theme park brings in each year, and asserts that it is one of the top employers and taxpayers in the state.
Disney World is covered by a special tax district that encompasses the park and gives the Walt Disney Corporation the ability to effectively operate the park as its own county, including issuing approvals for development, and handling maintenance and other municipal-type duties such as safety inspections.
The ongoing feud between the theme park and the Florida governor began last year when Disney’s then-CEO Bob Chapek publicly criticized the state’s Parental Rights in Education Act.
That legislation, dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by opponents, bans teaching about sexual orientation or gender in Florida’s classrooms. Since then, DeSantis has pushed back on what he has called Disney’s “corporate kingdom.” The governor also moved to take over Disney’s decades-old self-governing district.
“They’ve been treated much different than Universal and Sea World and all these other places, so they’re upset that they have to live by the same rules as everybody else,” DeSantis said Thursday at a news conference in Israel. “It’s a bit much to be complaining about that. I don’t think the suit has merit, I think it’s political.”
Prior to the news conference, DeSantis gave a speech at “Celebrate the Faces of Israel,” an event hosted by the Jerusalem Post and the Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem.
Owen Alterman, a senior diplomatic correspondent for Israel’s all-news channel i24news, said the speech was received “well” by the crowd.
“It seemed like there was a strategy to be statesmanlike, to try to burnish his pro-Israel credentials … and I assume to also burnish his foreign policy credentials writ large,” Alterman said.
Despite several recent international trips, DeSantis maintains he is not a 2024 presidential candidate.
On Wednesday, Senate Republicans in Florida passed an election law overhaul that would allow DeSantis to run for president without having to resign from his current position, bypassing the state’s resign-to-run rule.
DeSantis has faced a barrage of criticism from possible primary adversary former President Donald Trump.
Now, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who is also running for president in 2024, has criticized DeSantis for his ongoing feud with Disney. She invited Disney to relocate from Florida to South Carolina.
NewsNation affiliate The Hill and The Associated Press contributed to this report.