Will Donald Trump have a speaking role at Walt Disney World's Hall of Presidents attraction?
It's a question that Motherboard has inquired about for two weeks, to no avail. The White House confirmed they received the inquiry, but did not reply to a follow-up email. Walt Disney World, after receiving multiple requests, stated through a phone representative that "as of right now, we have nothing to share."
But thanks to an inside source, Motherboard has an answer. And it's not a simple answer. Rather, it's an answer that reflects a company in conflict, that knows it's been thrust into a politically-charged, no-win situation.
To contextualize: The Hall of Presidents attraction in Walt Disney World is a 23-minute celebration of American history, which opened in 1971. It begins with a short film about the history of the United States and its presidency, and it ends with an impressive grand finale. The curtain rises to reveal visually accurate robots of every President of the United States. The show concludes with a rousing rendition of "Battle Hymn of the Republic."
It is, from an objective standpoint, softball stuff. But every four to eight years, the attraction becomes a political thorn in Disney's side. There is always partisan grumbling over the newest White House occupant. And there has
always been a heckler here or there, dating back to the earlier days of the attraction, who boos or cheers for his or her preferred statesman.
There's been controversy over the attraction's historical content as well. In the early 90s, in the wake of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, Disney consulted Eric Foner, a leading American historian and professor of history at Columbia University. They tasked him with writing a new script for the attraction; the original script was written during the Cold War, during a time of intense American nationalism.
"The voiceover at the Hall of Presidents was totally celebratory of the United States of America—that [the country] had solved all its problems with the Constitution and Declaration of Independence and had been great ever since," recalled Foner in an interview with Motherboard. "Even the guys at Disney were saying, 'You know, that's not a complete picture of American history.'"
"They asked me, 'What's your concept, Professor?'" Foner continued. "And my concept was that the American Revolution set forth a group of ideals, and we have been struggling since then to live up to those ideals. We've made progress, but we still have more [progress to make]."
Disney followed Foner's script and vision closely. The only request Disney had, according to Foner, was to not make it "too depressing." When Foner asked why, the executive responded that depressed people don't buy stuff.
Sometimes, political controversy comes from Disney employees, especially during times of crisis and scandal. Motherboard spoke to theme park historian and frequent Disney blogger
Jim Hill to discuss some of the more notable instances. Hill shared that during the Watergate scandal, a mischievous employee snuck into the Hall after hours and used a necktie to bind Richard Nixon's hands behind his back, as though he were in handcuffs. The Bill Clinton robot underwent a similar pranking.
"The tradition continued." said Hill. "The [employees] used to sneak up onstage and put a condom in Bill Clinton's breast pocket; if you got up close, you could see it. Disney management eventually got wind of that, and had the pockets sewn shut."
When he debuted in 1993, Bill Clinton was the first president to recite a speech for the Hall of Presidents. George W. Bush followed suit eight years later. And Barack Obama followed suit eight years after him.
Disney is tight-lipped as to whether Trump will do the same. It's already certain that a Donald Trump robot
will be part of the attraction (which is currently closed for "refurbishments"). Disney CEO Bob Iger
confirmed this in a call with Wall Street analysts last November:
"We've already prepared a bust of President-elect Trump to go into our Hall of the Presidents at Disney World."
Iger expressed hope for a "smooth transition," though this looks to be anything but. There are already multiple anti-Trump petitions circulating (the
most prominent one has collected nearly 15,000 signatures), which urge Disney to silence the Trump robot, on the grounds that Trump ran for president on a platform of "hateful speech, misogyny, racism, and xenophobia."
Motherboard spoke via email and phone to a source close to Walt Disney Imagineering—the research and development department behind Disney's theme park attractions. And according to the source,
Donald Trump will be in the attraction, but he will probably not have a speaking role, unlike the three presidents immediately before him. The Imagineers will likely revert the attraction to its pre-1993 format, where the current president does not speak, while keeping the more realistic, grounded tone of the current show.
"Given how polarizing the president is right now, Disney Parks & Resorts is currently trying to find [a solution] that approaches middle ground," said the source in an interview with Motherboard. "They want to include our 45th commander-in-chief in this 45-year-old theme park attraction, while at the same time, not seem to endorse or support some of Trump's more controversial policies."
"Given President Trump's
current problems," continued the source, "Walt Disney World might elect to push the attraction's opening date back to the fall and then make further tweaks to the show."
According to the source, Disney might also rationalize silencing the Trump robot by decreasing the show's overall running time. There is precedent for this; the Country Bear Jamboree attraction, for example, was cut down from 16 minutes to 11 minutes. Disney reasons that the average, modern audience member does not have the attention span for a 16-minute presentation, let alone a 23-minute presentation. By cutting the Hall of Presidents show to 15 minutes—take a sentence away from Washington here, take a sentence away from Lincoln there—Disney could run more shows per hour, thus increasing the number of guests who experience the attraction.
Another contributing factor to Trump's auditory exclusion is his own lack of participation and obstinance. Disney reportedly reached out to Trump starting in January, but there has been no compromising effort to get things moving.
"That's a part of this—just getting time with him [to record]," said the source. "I guess there's also been some back-and-forth on his proposed script, which is something they're hoping to use as a 'Get Out of Jail Free' card. If he's not available to record, they can use that as a legitimate excuse… that's kind of what Disney's hoping for."
This difficulty is atypical. When Obama recorded his speech for the Hall of Presidents, Disney executives Pamela Fisher and Kathy Rogers flew out to Washington, D.C.
to supervise the 20-minute recording session in the White House's Map Room. Fisher also flew to Washington to record Bush's voice in 2001.
But to be fair, nothing about the past several months has been typical. And like the many people who stayed up on election night, watching their televisions in disbelief, the
Disney Imagineers were caught off-guard by Trump's win. They had to scrap late stage plans for a Hillary Clinton robot, because they predicted the election's outcome incorrectly.
"They were convinced that Hillary was going to win," said the source. "They were having conversations in late October and early November on how to dress her. 'Should it be the pantsuit she wore at the [Democratic] National Convention? Or should it be a darker color?' They were thinking along those lines. No one was giving any serious thought to it being Trump."
