Vivek Ramaswamy: I Disagree with DeSantis’ Disney Tactics

Entrepreneur and 2024 Republican presidential nomination candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that he disagreed with how Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) handled his disagreements with the Walt Disney Company.

Host Kaitlan Collins said, “Given what you said about limited government, do you agree with what Florida Governor Ron DeSantis did with Disney after they spoke out about his education bill?”

Ramaswamy said, “I would have handled that situation a little bit differently. We need to be precise about what the real drivers are of corporate wokism. One of the underappreciated realities is that Disney’s largest shareholders are Blackrock, State Street, and Vanguard. They are the three institutions that promote ESG environmental and social agendas and are the largest shareholders of most American companies. They set a tone that causes these companies to behave in politicized ways from their boardrooms on down. That’s a problem that needs to be fixed through the market. I don’t really believe in government, whether it’s on the left or right. You see this on the left, too, using the bully pulpit as a way to drive corporate change. I think the right way to drive corporate change is to do it through the root cause itself, and in this case, a lot of that is top-down driven by the ESG movement in capital markets and in corporate America’s boardrooms.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN