“There’s a larger principle at stake,” Governor Ron DeSantis declared today in the latest volley in the Disney-Florida war. Indeed there is, and not just the “rule of law,” a value cited repeatedly in DeSantis’ presser this afternoon. There is also the principle of the First Rule of Holes, and the refusal of Disney’s Bob Iger to recognize it.

Jonathan Turley offered a curtain-raiser for today’s DeSantis response that underscored the short-sightedness of Disney. When you have tens of billions of dollars’ worth of assets in a fixed position in a state, it’s the height of foolishness to provoke the sovereign state in which it exists. And yet …

The “declaration of restrictive covenants” gives Disney total control over development and even bans the new board from using Disney’s name or the names of any of its “fanciful characters.”

It added what is called a royal clause, used in England since 1692.

It specified this “Declaration shall continue in effect until 21 years after the death of the last survivor of the descendants of King Charles III, King of England, living as of the date of this declaration.”

Disney may have been too clever by half. The “Hail Mickey” play appears fundamentally flawed.

I have been told the new board intends to treat the declaration as null and void. It appears to have strong grounds to do so.

DeSantis and the legislative leader in today’s presser plan to go well beyond treating Disney’s royal decree as void. The legislature will expand the state-controlled board’s authority again, and will take further steps to force Disney to operate like every other business in Florida as well:

“You’re not going to have Disney have its own government in Central Florida,” he said. “You’re going to live under the same laws as everybody else.” …

In addition to voiding that move, the presumptive 2024 presidential candidate said Monday he will also seek to reverse other perks Disney has enjoyed since the establishment of its special tax district in 1967.

The park’s monorail, transportation systems and rides have been exempt from external inspections — but new regulations could make Disney subject to bolstered oversight.

And DeSantis tossed some chin music at Disney by suggesting some novel uses for state lands in the district. How about a competing amusement park, or maybe even some badly needed added capacity for the state penal system?

DeSantis openly speculating about what the state could build next to Walt Disney World:

“Someone even said, maybe you need another state prison…” pic.twitter.com/dlZ2r2OAqZ

— Scott Gustin (@ScottGustin) April 17, 2023

A prison next to Disney World? That would be a case of cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face if DeSantis took that suggestion seriously. That’s more of a nice business ya got there, shame if something happened to it response.

However, DeSantis is likely a lot more serious about re-assessing the property value of the Reedy Creek district and Disney’s land within it. DeSantis noted that the agreement that Disney created to evade the earlier legislative action would have allowed Disney to assess its own property value. That’s absurd, DeSantis argued, noting that Disney would be the only corporation or individual property owner in Florida with that ability.

“The larger issue,” DeSantis declared, “is ultimately who governs in a republic. And I think it’s we the people under the Constitution,” DeSantis concluded. “I think that’s the only answer.”

For DeSantis, the issues entirely revolved around Disney’s corporate hubris and attempts to subvert the legislature to keep its self-governing status. DeSantis didn’t make much mention of culture-war issues, but that changed when state representative Carolina Amnesty stepped up to the podium. “Here in the Free State of Florida,” she announced, “it is we the people, not woke corporations” in charge. “We all love Disney,” Amnesty continued, “however, you cannot indoctrinate our children.” Amnesty accused Disney of submitting to a small group of extremists who “want to indoctrinate our children with radical gender ideologies that have no basis in science, common sense, or basic human dignity.”

Now, one can certainly debate these issues. But does Disney’s board reeeeeaaaaalllllly want that debate to define not just their corporate board but their top-revenue theme park? And do they really want to risk continued escalations with the state legislature in order to have that debate? And all to essentially declare that a significant chunk of land near Orlando is no longer part of the sovereign self-governance of the state in which it rests?

Perhaps Bob Iger wants that debate and that fight. Ron DeSantis is clearly relishing it a lot more, however, and that’s largely because he has almost all the cards in this game. Disney’s best move is to apologize, withdraw that ridiculous “covenant,” and make peace with the state of Florida. Better to lose quickly and quietly than loudly and expensively.

Just how expensive will it be? The legislature will produce a bill within the next week or so, at which time Disney’s FAFO costs will become more apparent. They’ve got that much time to hit reverse, or to keep doubling down and see what else DeSantis and the legislature can do. Stay tuned, and in the meantime, here’s the whole presser. DeSantis certainly looked happy to be there.