South Carolina will divest its $105 million funding portfolio from the “happiest place on earth” within the newest transfer by Republican officers towards what they name Disney’s woke liberal agenda.
South Carolina Treasurer Curtis Loftis, who determined to divest after Disney pulled promoting from X over antisemitic content material from customers and proprietor Elon Musk, is seeking to flip a symbolic motion right into a snowballing motion.
“Disney will survive, of course, and the state will survive, but we’re making sure people understand we don’t need this type of imbalance in America,” Mr. Loftis advised The Washington Times. “The first guy through the door catches the arrows. You step out front, you stand up for what you think is right and then others often follow.”
The cash is a drop within the bucket for the state and Disney. South Carolina’s whole investments are about $41 billion, and Disney is price almost $170 billion.
“The effect is not really because we sold their debt; it’s another repudiation of Disney,” Mr. Loftis stated.
When Disney joined a whole lot of different main firms final month to boycott X, on high of a protracted grievance record towards the corporate for pushing what conservatives say is a sample of silencing free speech, Mr. Loftis noticed an opportune second to sever ties.
“They ganged up with Media Matters, Walmart, IBM and other multibillion-dollar corporations with global reach getting together and boycotting X, which is really boycotting working-class people using X as a free speech platform,” he stated. “I don’t think you should have billionaires ganging up like hooligans pushing people out of their free speech space.”
Disney didn’t reply to a request for remark.
South Carolina will enable all its $105 million in Disney bonds to mature over the subsequent two years and direct its cash elsewhere beneath Mr. Loftis’ administration. He stated he’s “evaluating” divestments from related firms however declined to call them.
Disney has additionally been within the crosshairs of conservatives over its assist of climate-conscious ESG investing, or environmental, social and governance investing.
As for the antisemitic content material from Mr. Musk and others on his social media platform, Mr. Loftis has invested $150 million of the state’s cash in Israeli bonds since taking workplace in 2011 and doesn’t consider “there’s an antisemitic bone in Elon Musk’s body.”
“All that is a tempest in the teapot. I am pro-Jew, pro-Judaism, pro-Zionism,” Mr. Loftis stated. “I’m as pro-Israel as they come. This is a canard.”
Mr. Musk lately responded to the exodus from X by telling advertisers to “go f—- yourself.”
Among the critics of Mr. Loftis’ divestment choice is South Carolina state Sen. Deon Tedder, a Democrat.
“It just specifically screams political agenda,” Mr. Tedder advised native TV affiliate WCIV. “I don’t think that’s a smart move for South Carolina.”
Mr. Loftis rejected that assertion and insisted the monetary transfer “won’t cost the state one penny.”
“I think it’s preposterous. We have the right to invest,” he stated. “The left is the one who brought politics into it. They gave us ESG and [diversity, equity and inclusion].”
