Is Corporate Capitulation Finally Losing Steam?
Disney defies Trump threats. Will others follow? Plus: Deadly shooting at ICE facility. Hundreds of migrants disappear from database. Harris airs grievances. And some medical News That Doesn't Suck.
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“Where has all the leadership gone?” former Disney chief Michael Eisner asked last week. Yesterday, he got an answer.
Disney CEO Bob Iger reversed course and restored Jimmy Kimmel to the air, defying presidential threats. The turnaround came after facing boycott pressure, employee resistance, and finding unlikely allies in Joe Rogan and Senator Ted Cruz, who likened the FCC’s tactics to Mafia extortion.
Still, this wasn’t inevitable. Several station groups with FCC business continue refusing to air Kimmel, a reminder that resistance carries real costs.
Is Iger the only corporate titan to directly defy Trump this term? I can’t think of another. Other companies face comparable choices. An obvious one: Tylenol producer Kenvue. They could be hit with a wave of lawsuits after Trump declared that the medication is linked to autism and warned expectant mothers, “don’t take it.” Will Kenvue sue the federal government? Should they?
Most executives have chosen silence over confrontation, no doubt calculating that accommodation beats resistance. That assumes government pressure will eventually pass, that staying quiet is safer than speaking up. Disney’s reversal suggests a different calculation may be emerging: that the costs of capitulation may now exceed the risks of resistance. Whether Iger’s move represents an isolated moment of corporate conscience or the beginning of broader business pushback will depend on the Trump administration’s response, and the mood of the Disney board.
Courage can be contagious. The question is whether other executives will see Iger’s choice as proof that resistance works or as a cautionary tale about the price of defying presidential power.
Here Are Your Headlines
Kimmel’s Comeback: Jimmy Kimmel returned to the airwaves Tuesday night with an emotional monologue on free speech, which has already drawn over 11 million views online — well over forty times Kimmel’s median viewership. “This show is not important,” he said. “What is important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this.” He played a video from 2022 of Trump saying, “If we don’t have free speech, then we just don’t have a free country.” “He did his best to cancel me,” Kimmel said. “Instead, he forced millions of people to watch the show.… He might have to release the Epstein files to distract us from this now.” (You can watch the monologue here or read a transcript here.)
Poked Bear: Kimmel addressed his comments about Charlie Kirk’s alleged murderer, insisting “it was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man.” What he didn’t do, however, was apologize, something that has infuriated some on the right. Apology or not, his very return also angered Trump. “Why would they want someone back who … puts the Network in jeopardy by playing 99% positive Democrat GARBAGE,” Trump complained in a long rant posted to Truth Social shortly before Kimmel’s return aired. “He is yet another arm of the DNC and, to the best of my knowledge, that would be a major Illegal Campaign Contribution. I think we’re going to test ABC out on this.… Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 Million Dollars. This one sounds even more lucrative. A true bunch of losers! Let Jimmy Kimmel rot in his bad ratings.” Sinclair and Nexstar, which together control over 20% of ABC’s local affiliate stations, both refused to air Kimmel’s show. They also both happen to have business before Trump’s FCC.
Violence Continues: Two ICE detainees are dead and another is critically injured after a shooting at a Dallas ICE facility. The DHS said, “The shooter fired indiscriminately at the ICE building, including at a van in the sallyport where the victims were shot.” FBI Director Kash Patel shared an image of an unspent bullet recovered from the scene, seemingly engraved with the phrase “ANTI-ICE.” He said the shooter had “an ideological motive.” The FBI is treating this as an act of “targeted violence.”
In Perspective: Officials condemned political violence, claiming it is putting ICE agents in danger. Vice President Vance posted on X, “the obsessive attack on law enforcement, particularly ICE, must stop.” Sen. Ted Cruz called for an end to “rhetoric demonizing ICE and demonizing CPB.” According to DHS, 79 “assault events” have been recorded by the agency since Trump took office this year. During that time, at least 14 migrants have died in ICE custody, and countless more have been snatched off the street by masked agents and sent to detention centers, often for the sole “crime” of appearing Latino. Curiously, this has not prompted the administration to call for reigning in its own “rhetoric” — that migrants constitute a dangerous invading force. “They’re not humans,” Trump said last year. “They’re animals.”
Vanished: Hundreds of people detained at the controversial Alligator Alcatraz immigrant detention center have disappeared from ICE’s online database, leaving their families unable to locate them. The facility was supposed to shut down after an environmental lawsuit found it damaged the surrounding ecosystem, but an appeals court froze that decision earlier this month, leaving its future uncertain. One immigration attorney who represented clients at the notorious facility said it’s become common for detainees to not appear on ICE’s locator system. “We get people here crying every week,” he said, “because they don’t know where their family members are.”
Blame Game: Democrats have opened multiple investigations into the Trump DOJ’s decision to shutter a criminal inquiry into border czar Tom Homan, after he was recorded in September 2024 accepting $50,000 cash from undercover FBI agents. They accused the DOJ of conducting “a brazen cover-up to protect Donald Trump’s allies” and demanded the recordings of Homan be made public. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted this week that Homan “never took the $50,000,” without elaborating; Homan asserted on Fox News that he “did nothing criminal” by taking the money. Leavitt claimed the whole thing was an effort by the Biden administration to “entrap one of the president’s top allies,” a “brave public servant” who she said “did absolutely nothing wrong.”
About Face: Trump issued a stunning statement in support of Ukraine this week. “After getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine/Russia Military and Economic situation,” he said, “I think Ukraine … is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form.” Trump urged NATO members and Europe to stop purchasing Russian oil and gas, pledged to “supply weapons to NATO for NATO to do what they want with them,” and said he thought NATO aircraft should shoot down Russian aircraft violating NATO airspace under certain conditions. Trump ended his Truth Social post on the matter with the following: “Good luck to all!” So far, he hasn’t walked that back. Well…
Caution: Secretary of State Marco Rubio quickly clarified that the war “cannot end militarily,” and “will end at the negotiating table.” And when Trump was asked whether he still trusted Putin, he once again demurred: “I’ll let you know in about a month from now.” Russian officials tried to laugh it off. One Russian paper noted, “Trump is influenced by the last person he has spoken to. In this case it was Zelenskyy.”
Tech War: Danish authorities have linked several drone incursions that forced Copenhagen airport to temporarily close with a series of similar incidents — drone incursions and cyber attacks — across Europe, suspected to be the work of Russia. There is no conclusive evidence linking Russia to these events. But the nation has ramped up its testing of European defenses (and patience) recently, sending no fewer than 19 drones into Polish airspace, one into Romanian airspace, and three MiG-31 fighter jets into Estonian airspace.
Trump and RFK v. The World: Health experts and organizations around the world, including the WHO, are rejecting the Trump administration’s claim that Tylenol is linked to autism. The EU’s medicine agency noted there was “no new evidence” that would prompt it to change its current recommendations for the use of acetaminophen, which its chief medical officer said “remains an important option to treat pain or fever in pregnant women.” The UK’s health secretary urged expecting mothers not to pay “any attention whatsoever” to Trump’s claims. Still, Kenvue, which makes Tylenol, could face a wave of lawsuits thanks to the administration’s claims. Trump urged women to “fight like hell not to take” Tylenol — or acetaminophen, which Trump couldn’t pronounce — and suggested there was no downside to avoiding it. “That’s not true,” a professor of epidemiology warned. “There are potentially severe health risks if a fever goes untreated for a prolonged period of time during pregnancy.” A doctor in the UK similarly warned MAHA’s “fearmongering will prevent women from accessing the appropriate care during pregnancy.”
Promises: Trump reportedly promised leaders of eight Arab and Muslim countries that he will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. That promise is reportedly part of the administration’s plan to end the war in Gaza, which Trump presented to the leaders.
Growing Support: Dozens of world leaders at the UN rallied around a Palestinian state. France’s President Emmanual Macron announced he would recognize such a state, saying “we must do everything within our power to preserve the very possibility of a two-state solution, Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security.” He said France would open an embassy if certain conditions were met, including a ceasefire and the release of all remaining hostages held by Hamas. Roughly 20 living hostages are believed to still be captive in Gaza.
Fire Away: The Supreme Court temporarily allowed Trump to fire a commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission. Temporarily, because the Justices agreed to consider overturning 90-year-old precedent to allow Trump to fire commissioners without cause. Justice Elena Kagan warned that her conservative colleagues are reshaping “the nation’s separation of powers in Trump’s favor,” allowing him to “extinguish the agencies’ bipartisanship and independence.”
Another Dem Vote: Democrat Adelita Grijalva won a special election in Arizona this week by nearly 40 points, filling the seat left held by her late father. She’ll be the first Latina congresswoman in Arizona’s history. Her victory also narrows the GOP’s majority in the House to just 5 seats — and provides lawmakers with the final signature needed to trigger a discharge petition that would force the DOJ to disclose the Epstein files. (Assuming, of course, the four Republicans who signed onto the measure don’t back out.)
“Best Friends Forever”: That’s the title of two bronze statues that mysteriously appeared on the National Mall yesterday. They depict Trump and Jeffrey Epstein holding hands, above plaques that included quotes from the sexually charged note Trump allegedly wrote Epstein for his 50th birthday. The statues were removed by Wednesday morning.
Shut It Down: Trump abruptly cancelled a meeting with Democrat leaders scheduled for tomorrow, the latest sign lawmakers may not be able to avert a government shutdown at the end of the month. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accused Trump of “running away from the negotiating table.” Republican leaders reportedly advised Trump to cancel the meeting. Trump today posted a rambling rant about supposed Democrat policies: “$500 Million Dollars to help Radical Left News Outfits” (lucky them); “leave DEAD PEOPLE on Medicaid and Social Security rolls” (untrue); and “‘Transgender’ for EVERYBODY” (your guess is as good as ours here).
Tell-All, or Told-Too-Much?
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