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Behind the Scenes of Disney's Donald Trump 'Hall of Presidents' Drama

L

LordOfLore

Banned
Searched for a thread but didn't find one.

Walt Disney World's Hall of Presidents—closed for renovations since January 2017 in order to add a new Donald Trump robot—was originally scheduled to reopen with its new president in time for summer.

But now, its reopening has been pushed back to no earlier than the fall, and perhaps beyond that, according to Disney sources familiar with the attraction. After much behind-the-scenes drama and internal machinations about whether or not Trump would have a speaking role in the attraction, Disney told a local TV station that Trump would indeed speak. But the road to get to this point has been fraught with difficulties.

According to our source, Trump's communications team turned what should have been a simple recording process into a public relations nightmare—one that Disney executives twisted themselves in knots to avoid, in order to save face for the president, and ultimately, save face for themselves.

Motherboard reached out to Walt Disney World for comment on this story and did not receive a response. "The same thing that we've done with other presidents, is the same plan we have for President Trump," said Jacquee Wahler, Disney's vice president of communications, told News 13 in Orlando. Wahler said Disney hoped to reopen the ride by the anniversary of Trump's election.

The Hall of Presidents is a 23-minute show about the history of the American presidency at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Florida. At the show's conclusion, the curtain rises to reveal every U.S. president in history. Each commander-in-chief is portrayed by a life-sized Audio-Animatronic (Disney parlance for robot), who can move, talk, and in some cases, sit and stand.
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Disney assumed that the transition from Obamabot to Trumpbot would be smooth and seamless. "We've already prepared a bust of President-elect Trump to go into our Hall of the Presidents at Disney World," said Disney CEO Bob Iger in a call with Wall Street analysts last November. But instead, according to a source close to Magic Kingdom management, the Trump communications team has been combative and obstinate, upsetting an established process that three prior presidential administrations found amenable.

"When Disney tried to get this process started earlier this year," said the source in an email to Motherboard, "Trump's people said, 'We'll be writing the speech that the President's Audio-Animatronic figure will be saying.'"

"The Imagineers [the researchers and developers behind Disney's theme park attractions] tried to point out that they're typically involved with this process," continued the source. "That they directly collaborated with Clinton, Bush, and Obama's people when it came to figuring out what the President's Audio-Animatronic figure would say. Trump's people said, 'No. We're writing this speech. You guys have no input on this.'"

So that's been the holdup. Disney has always collaborated with the president on the final speech. Disney, apparently, has finally reached an agreement with the Trump team, though we still don't know yet how much involvement Disney will have in the crafting of the speech (if any).

One solution that was floated internally was to have the current president not talk, and revert the attraction to something resembling its original format, where only Lincoln spoke during the final roll call. This format existed from 1971, when the attraction opened, to the end of 1993, when the talking Clinton robot debuted.

According to our source, this is the solution that many at Disney were hoping for.

"There are those at Imagineering who hope that if they hold off on doing anything with this attraction until the fall, Trump may have done something so egregious that the general public won't have an issue with putting a non-talking version of [Trump] in The Hall of Presidents," said the source.

And now, a simple speech recording—something that should have been small, perfunctory, and ceremonial—has snowballed into a political issue.

"They'd particularly like to avoid him tweeting about this situation," added the source. "It would most likely result in a call for conservatives to boycott Walt Disney World, which is the company's biggest fear."

"Disney officials are bending over backwards in an effort not to be seen as disrespectful towards President Trump," said the source.
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Lock if old.
 
M

Mondrian

Member
They should just wait and maybe be able to have robot FBI agents come and arrest him. That'll probably spice up the attraction a bit.
 
C

CHC

Member
The Disney team should just set a deadline for Trump's people to cooperate and submit a speech or whatever else they need to. Since obviously they are too disorganized to make the deadline, Disney could just use that as their reasoning for not putting this human turd on display. Everybody wins.
 
A

Arment

Member
I can only hope conservatives boycott Disney so I can put my annual pass to much more use with less lines.
 
H

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
I still say it should an animatronic puppet that lunges at the audience while trying to grab them by the pussy.
 
S

Servbot24

Banned
"You don't deserve to live"
"Grab her by the pussy"
"You're worth less than me"
"The gays don't matter"
"Fuck this planet and fuck your grandchildren"

Just spitballing some ideas
 
M

Mask

Member
They honestly just should have a non-speaking one for him. Considering he wanted his team to fully write the speech, it'll be full of gross propaganda shit about "bigly crowds and her emails"
 
P

peteykirch

Member
I wonder if it'll be open when I'm down there for Labor Day.

Sitting in the Hall of Presidents was always a weird experience when depending on the crowd you'll get different reactions for each president when they were introduced. Swear to God that the guy next to me started to cry when Reagan was introduced.
 
S

SolarPowered

Member
"There are those at Imagineering who hope that if they hold off on doing anything with this attraction until the fall, Trump may have done something so egregious that the general public won't have an issue with putting a non-talking version of [Trump] in The Hall of Presidents," said the source.
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This was my suspicion from the very start, but I always figured he should have been silenced from day one considering his "grab 'em by the pussy" disaster. No man who said that on tape should be allowed to say anything in front of children even if it's just a robot representation (consequences be damned).
 
K

kirby_fox

Banned
I've a feeling it won't match the spirit of what they were going for if he ever gets around to doing it.

At some point you just have to say 'This has been closed too long, we're going to put Lincoln in and if something changes we will change it to allow the sitting president to speak.'
 
Monocle

Monocle

Member
It will be so tragic when his puppet gets vandalized. So, so, tragic.

"Disney officials are bending over backwards in an effort not to be seen as disrespectful towards President Trump,"
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Well now I'm crossing my fingers for that conservative backlash. Trump sycophants are pathetic, and if we're honest, unpatriotic.
 
B

BoogieWoogie

Banned
Malvolio said:
They should just have him sitting in a corner, watching a TV and silently tweeting.
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Just use one of these, no one will tell the difference:

1SOTyMp.gif
 
M

Makonero

Member
TangoAlphaLima said:
How long does it take to say, "We're gonna build a wall. Lock Her Up. Make America Great Again [end scene]"?
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That's the issue. Disney won't let what Trumpbot says be political or controversial. Which means there's no way a speech with no input from them would be acceptable in any way.
 
T

Tobor

Member
Trumpbot is the greatest Presidential robot. We all know Obamabot wasn't even built in this country. Let's
make American robots great again!
 
C

Cosmo Clock 21

Banned
Makonero said:
That's the issue. Disney won't let what Trumpbot says be political or controversial. Which means there's no way a speech with no input from them would be acceptable in any way.
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Past presidents: "okay no controversy got it"
Trump: "the failing Disney world is stifling free speech in the name of political correctness"
 
H

Htown

STOP SHITTING ON MY MOTHER'S HEADSTONE
"When Disney tried to get this process started earlier this year," said the source in an email to Motherboard, "Trump's people said, 'We'll be writing the speech that the President's Audio-Animatronic figure will be saying.'"

"The Imagineers [the researchers and developers behind Disney's theme park attractions] tried to point out that they're typically involved with this process," continued the source. "That they directly collaborated with Clinton, Bush, and Obama's people when it came to figuring out what the President's Audio-Animatronic figure would say. Trump's people said, 'No. We're writing this speech. You guys have no input on this.'"
Click to expand...

Seriously what is wrong with these people?
 
Z

Zolo

Member
If Disney reached an agreement with the Trump team, it means he has a speaking role. Otherwise, the Trump team wouldn't agree to him having a non-speaking role.

It's also funny that Trump's people talking about how Disney has no input when it's entirely their decision.
 
J

jiggles

Banned
Disney told a local TV station that Trump would indeed speak. But the road to get to this point has been fraught with difficulties.
Click to expand...

They're still waiting to get a coherent sentence they can use
 
J

jph139

Member
Finale Fireworker said:
Here's my question: why are they afraid of conservative boycott and no liberal boycott?

How do I make Disney afraid of me too.
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Breaking with precedent is always more controversial than sticking with it.

I mean, there's no shortage of heinous dudes in the Hall of Presidents.
 
S

Skellig Gra

Member
Zolo said:
If Disney reached an agreement with the Trump team, it means he has a speaking role. Otherwise, the Trump team wouldn't agree to him having a non-speaking role.

It's also funny that Trump's people talking about how Disney has no input when it's entirely their decision.
Click to expand...

Not entirely true, I don't think they can just use his likeness and make him talk without his legal consent. I get your point though. Just more stupid arrogance from their camp.
 
S

Saganator

Member
They should just leave it as it was before Trump was president. Then people will go on the ride and for about 20 minutes pretend that Trump isn't the president. Seeing that fucker in the same room as Lincoln, Obama, Eisenhower, FDR, and other greats will be far too depressing.
 
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