South Carolina State Treasurer Curtis Loftis removed The Walt Disney Company from an approved investment list this week, citing a "structural rot" that has resulted in putting "far-left activism" ahead of fiduciary responsibilities to its investors.
"I think it's clear to anybody paying attention that there's a structural rot inside of Disney. It's deep, it’s pervasive, and I suspect Bob Iger, since his return is the CEO, now realizes it can't be fixed… it does not bode well for the future of Disney," Loftis told Fox News Digital.
As the "state’s banker," Loftis, a Republican, manages approximately $70 billion per year. The State Treasurer’s Office portfolio contains $105 million dollars of Disney debt instruments that will mature as scheduled and will not be replaced.
Loftis feels that ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance), which critics feel is liberal activism masquerading as corporate responsibility, has ruined Disney.
"People sometimes forget that ESG has nothing to do with investing. ESG is a speech and behavior code that was created by the left and delivered to everybody else under these virtuous circumstances, or presumed circumstances," Loftis said.
"But really, it's about the transfer of power. And it's been complete at Disney. The sane, sober, talented, mature people are gone, and now you have the gender studies crowd running Disney," he continued. "That's why their movies are flops there, and their market cap, I think, is about half what it used to be. It's a tremendous loss to America, we all grew up on Disney."
Last month, Disney stunned observers by essentially admitting in an SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) report that its political and social agenda hurt the company and shareholders.
DISNEY'S IGER ON HALTING X ADS: ASSOCIATION WITH MUSK, PLATFORM NOT 'A POSITIVE ONE FOR US'
Disney recently halted advertising on Elon Musk’s X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, after a far-left advocacy group insisted X ads for certain firms and antisemitic content had shown up adjacent to each other. Musk plans to fight the battle in court, claiming "algorithms governing the user experience" were manipulated.
The move to pull ads from X was the last straw for Loftis, who believes the company is attempting to ruin the company that allows Americans to speak freely.
"We have been watching the Disney saga for some time, but I don't like to be too heavily involved in politics, especially since it's not in my home state. But it really bothers me, and I believe it's symptomatic that they just left their fiduciary responsibilities behind, because they ganged up with other billionaires now and are trying to put a legal business out of business," Loftis said.
"This is all about a gang of billionaires, you know… hooligans trying to put somebody out of business. And who are they really putting out of business? They're putting the working class people, the middle class people, who use the platform for free speech," he continued. "That's who they're trying to put out of business. And I don't think it's proper for this gang of billionaires to pick on people who can't afford to fight back."
WOKE DISNEY’S YEAR OF ENDURING BOX OFFICE BOMBS, SUBSCRIBER LOSSES AND LAYOFFS
As a result, Disney has been removed from South Carolina’s approved investment list.
"I decided to let the debt roll off in this natural fashion, that way it didn’t cost the state anything. We just won't be buying any more of their debt," Loftis said.
Disney isn’t alone in pausing their advertisements on X in recent weeks, and Loftis doesn’t believe any of them have the best interest of investors in mind.
"Others that are participating in this so-called advertising boycott, which we all know has nothing to do with advertising boycotts, are acting like hooligans in a gang fight," Loftis said.
"They want to put out the one free speech platform that’s left… they want hundreds of millions of people to lose their ability to speak at scale," he continued. "And I think that when billionaires push their weight around and use the resources of their multi-billion-dollar global companies, that that is unacceptable, and people have to stand up and say no."
The Walt Disney Company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Fox Business’ Aislinn Murphy and Eric Revell contributed to this report.
