Posted in: Movies | Tagged: bob iger, disney, donald trump, ike perlmutter, marvel

Does Disney's Purchase of Fox Guarantee Four More Years of Donald Trump?

When Disney announced the purchase of most of the assets of 20th Century Fox last December, most people were focused on what it meant for movie franchises like the X-Men and the Fantastic Four, but Bleeding Cool was and remains always clever and click-hungry enough to ask the question…

For besides the obvious connections like the love affair between Rupert Murdoch owned Fox News (which will not be part of the deal) and Donald Trump, the deal also includes one close ally and one rival of the president, respectively, Marvel Chairman and one of Disney's largest individual shareholders, Ike Perlmutter, and Disney CEO Bob Iger. In Perlmutter, Trump has not only a friend and political donor but also an official advisor who has the president's ear on matters of veterans' healthcare and has even recently been named as a power broker in the White House who helped oust former VA Secretary David Shulkin. In a way, supporting Marvel Comics translates to some percentage of direct financial support for Trump, thanks to Perlmutter's donations. But in Iger, Trump faced a potential 2020 presidential opponent, as rumors had swirled since Trump's election that Iger could be planning his own bid after leaving Disney. But the Fox purchase meant that Iger would need to stay on at Disney until at least 2021, dashing hopes that he could oppose and defeat Trump.

Now, in an interview with Vogue, Iger has confirmed that he was, in fact, eyeing a presidential run which was halted by the Fox deal.

"Willow initially not only hated the idea," Iger told the magazine, speaking of his wife of his initial idea to run, "but put her foot down because she thought it would be highly destructive to our family and to our lives."

However, Iger said that they had come to an agreement and he was seriously exploring a run when the Fox deal squashed those plans. Maybe that's why well-meaning but ineffective Democrats tried their best to block the deal?

"The thought I had was coming from the patriot in me, growing up at a time when we respected our politicians not only for what they stood for but because of what they accomplished," Iger said. "I am horrified at the state of politics in America today, and I will throw stones in multiple directions. Dialogue has given way to disdain. I, maybe a bit naively, believed that there was a need for someone in high elected office to be more open-minded and willing to not only govern from the middle but to try to shame everyone else into going to the middle."

For Trump, a reality TV star with the backing not only of the Marvel Comics mogul Perlmutter, but also Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, the man who helped finance the X-Men movie franchise, Lego Batman, and Suicide Squad, to name a few, as well as former WWE CEO Linda McMahon, it's clear that only the highest caliber of entertainment industry executive stands a chance of taking him down in a general election. If not Bob Iger, who has overseen the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Pixar, and Star Wars, then who? Which Hollywood exec stands a chance of taking the presidency from Trump?

It may be nice to have the Fantastic Four back in a monthly ongoing comic, but at what cost? At what cost?!

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