Even many Republican officials are siding with Disney in a humiliating blow to Ron DeSantis

A group of former, mostly-Republican officials has submitted an amicus brief defending Disney in its lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).

The brief reportedly compared DeSantis to Chinese and Russian autocrats and said his treatment of Disney is “severely damaging to the political, social, and economic fabric of the State.”

Related Stories Ron DeSantis got absolutely trashed by one of his state’s biggest newspapers

The Miami Herald said he’s “no political genius” and suffers from a “lack of charisma.”

Disney is suing DeSantis – who is currently running a presidential campaign that many consider to be dead in the water – for “a targeted campaign of government retaliation” in response to the company criticizing his infamous “Don’t Say Gay” law.

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The lawsuit accuses DeSantis and state officials of a “relentless campaign to weaponize government power against Disney in retaliation for expressing a political viewpoint.” The Republican-led effort, the lawsuit alleges, “now threatens Disney’s business operations, jeopardizes its economic future in the region, and violates its constitutional rights.”

The group behind the amicus brief includes former GOP governors Arne Carlson of Minnesota and Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey, as well as former GOP House members Christopher Shays of Connecticut, Tom Coleman of Missouri, and Claudine Schneider of Rhode Island. Signatories also include chiefs of staff, commissioners, and attorneys from former Republican and Democratic presidential administrations, according to the Associated Press.

The brief states that it hopes to show “how the path the Governor has chosen is corrosive to the form of democracy envisioned by the Constitution, and to re-emphasize this Court’s critical constitutional role in curbing the excesses of governance by retaliation.”

“The fact that Governor DeSantis has taken these anti-democratic actions so blatantly and brazenly — that he is proud of them — only makes them all the more damaging to the political and social fabric of Florida and the country as a whole,” the brief declares.

The group also argues that DeSantis’s relentless efforts to retaliate against Disney hurt Florida’s economy by scaring companies away from doing business there. DeSantis’s actions led Disney itself to cancel its plans to build a $1 billion campus in Orlando that would have brought more than 2,000 jobs to the region.

The trouble began when Disney released a statement saying DeSantis’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill “should never have passed and should never have been signed into law” and that the company’s goal “is for the law to be repealed by the Legislature or struck down in the courts, and we remain committed to supporting the national and state organizations working to achieve that.”

DeSantis then began endlessly criticizing the company, calling it  an “unaccountable Corporate Kingdom” that had “extraordinary special privileges.”

In February, DeSantis signed a bill abolishing Disney’s self-governance over its district. However, his board appointees quickly learned that the previous board snuck in a last-minute development agreement with Disney, allowing it to maintain much of its autonomy, rendering the new board rather powerless for decades.

In response, DeSantis threatened to build a prison next to Disney and called for state oversight of Disney World’s rides. He also threatened to tax Disney’s hotels and impose tolls on roads that lead into the entertainment company’s theme parks.

DeSantis has been widely mocked for his obsession with punishing Disney, and even Florida Republicans have long been sick of the battle. In April, a Politico exposé revealed that both Democrats and Republicans in the state legislature have had enough of the governor’s revenge-fueled agenda.

“We’re not the party of cancel culture. We can’t keep doing this tit for tat,” said one GOP lawmaker, who chose to remain anonymous.

While most Republicans were unwilling to speak on the record due to the power DeSantis holds, the report details the legislators’ frustrations that the governor has ignored their priorities in favor of advancing his own. Additionally, many who do not support government intervention in private businesses are embittered by his battle with Disney.

Earlier this year, local Florida attorney Jacob Schumer told WFTV that he expects Disney will win its court case against DeSantis because the governor’s and legislature’s actions represent a clear-cut instance of retaliation, violating Disney’s constitutionally protected free speech rights.