'Con man joint': Vivek Ramaswamy doesn’t have as much control over Disney as he wants you to think
Demanding that Disney be "held accountable" when former Chief Executive Officer Bob Chapek was ousted in November of last year, biotech multimillionaire and newly popular 2024 Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has claimed his hedge fund — Strive Asset Management — had a hand in the decision to terminate Chapek, according to The Daily Beast.
However, the news outlet notes that "Despite going hard against Disney in his book and penning a strongly worded shareholder letter to" Chapek "in September 2022," the GOP hopeful "and Strive Asset Management, have done little to influence the company, despite his very public claims otherwise."
Ramaswamy took "a victory lap" over the decision to terminate Chapek, according to the report, despite that fact he and Strive "owned an infinitesimally small amount of Disney stock compared to the overall value of the company," and "according to shareholder information shared with The Daily Beast, Strive had $850,000 of Disney stock in a company with a market cap value of $167 billion on the day Chapek was fired—which is to say, Strive owned 0.0005% of Disney at the time."
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A Republican strategist told the news outlet, "What you do prior to running for president effectively amounts to your record. It's a big deal, and more Republican voters, I think as they learn about it, they may like what he's saying, he's still unknown, but when they learn more about his record, I think those are going to raise some eyebrows and concerns for voters.
As GOP candidates including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis strive "to be the most oppositional to Disney," the Beast reports Ramaswamy "mentioned the company 30 times in his 2021 book Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America's Social Justice Scam, which served as the springboard to his upstart presidential bid" emphasizing that his "lane in the field was pleasing to Trumpworld precisely because of his potential to outflank DeSantis to the right on the House of Mouse."
Ramaswamy's aim at Disney is also an aim at DeSantis who's been legally battling the corporation since last year when the entertainment giant sued the governor for allegedly violating its First Amendment rights after Disney criticized his "Don't Say Gay" law.
But according to the report, "the closest Ramaswamy ever got to taking the fight to Disney was his irrelevant warning shots against a company in which he owned 1/20,000th of the behemoth, according to the information shared with The Daily Beast.
The anonymous GOP strategist emphasized, "For voters, it's very important to look at Vivek’s record here. It's all rooted in a con man joint."
READ MORE: Who the hell is Vivek Ramaswamy and why is he surging in the polls?
The Daily Beast's full report is available at this link (subscription required).
