Ike Perlmutter, the former chairman of Marvel Entertainment at Disney, is planning a massive donation to back former President Donald Trump’s 2024 run for president, according to his spokesman.
Perlmutter has yet to decide how much he plans to donate toward Trump’s run, but the businessman’s spokesman said Thursday the financial support would be “meaningful.”
Perlmutter and Trump have been close for over two decades. Perlmutter has previously donated $10.5 million toward a pro-Trump super PAC during the 2020 election cycle, according to Federal Election Commission records. Perlmutter’s wife also gave $10.5 million to the same PAC, records show.
Perlmutter also acted as an outside advisor to then-President Trump on issues related to the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to ProPublica.
The former Marvel boss, who has a net worth of just over $3 billion, is so far one of the wealthiest backers of Trump’s 2020 campaign. Many megadonors who once supported the ex-president are seeking alternatives following the Jan. 6, 2021 pro-Trump riot on Capitol Hill and some lackluster 2022 midterm election results.
The Trump-allied Make America Great Again super PAC will likely receive money from Perlmutter. The super PAC came into this year with just over $54 million on hand and so far has spent over $19 million on TV and digital ads.
Trump is currently leading in the Republican primary polls, well ahead of his second place rival in Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Perlmutter’s decision to back Trump again over his Republican rivals could represent another blow to DeSantis. Some of the governor’s donors become concerned with the trajectory of his campaign. Perlmutter donated over $250,000 to a state-level PAC that backed when he ran for governor in 2018 and 2022, according to campaign finance records. His wife gave over $2 million to the same pro-DeSantis PAC, according to the records.
The New York Times reported that Perlmutter recently dined with fellow GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
Perlmutter, after he was ousted from Disney earlier this year, told The Wall Street Journal that he called DeSantis and agreed that the company should not be involved with politics. “Ron, you’re right. Disney doesn’t have the right to get involved with politics,” Perlmutter reportedly told DeSantis in a phone call. Disney and DeSantis have been at war since the entertainment giant last year criticized a Republican-supported bill that critics call “Don’t Say Gay.”
Perlmutter told the Journal that Disney fired him as chairman of Marvel Entertainment because he pushed the company too aggressively to cut costs and ran into issues with executives allied with newly returned CEO Bob Iger.
A Disney representative told the Journal that the company’s general counsel called Perlmutter to inform him that his job was terminated because of the company’s broader cost-cutting effort. Perlmutter told the publication he doesn’t remember such a call taking place.
Iger told CNBC on Thursday that he rejected DeSantis’ campaign rhetoric against the company, calling the Republican presidential candidate’s attacks “preposterous and inaccurate.” Iger also said there will be a pullback in content spending and creation for the Star Wars and Marvel franchises.