Rightwing pundit demands Mickey Mouse be turned into a Nazi to punish Disney for making kids trans

The Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles wants to celebrate the original Mickey Mouse’s entrance into the public domain by turning the beloved character into a Nazi.

On a recent episode of his show, the anti-LGBTQ+ commentator explained what he clearly believed was his brilliant idea to punish Disney for supporting LGBTQ+ rights.

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“Mickey Mouse has to become a Nazi,” he said. “He has to. Because Disney is a very, very evil corporation that wants to trans your kids and fill their heads with all sorts of crazy ideas, and Disney’s gotta go.”

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“You heard all the Disney executives talking about their not-so-secret LGBTLMNOP agenda,” he continued, likely referring to leaked 2022 videos from a Disney webinar that featured executives talking about the company’s dedication to uplifting LGBTQ+ content. “You’ve seen what Disney has done in recent years, so much so that the governor of Florida had to take political action against them to stop Disney from trying to interfere in the democratic process in Florida to stop the libs from transing your kids. OK?”

Here, Knowles wildly misinterpreted the battle between Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and the Walt Disney Company. Disney is currently suing DeSantis for a “relentless campaign to weaponize government power against Disney in retaliation for expressing a political viewpoint.” DeSantis took several measures to punish Disney for exercising its right to free speech by speaking out against Florida’s Don’t Say Gay bill.

“Disney is really really bad,” Knowles continued to rant. “So one of the best things that we can do right now is make the Disney characters toxic… The Disney character is now in the public domain, and what this means is we need to turn Mickey into a Nazi.”

He also felt the need to clarify to his viewers that he does not like Nazis. “Because Nazis are bad,” he said. “I’m quite anti-Nazi… I assume you are as well.”

He then went on to explain why he believes the Nazi-fication of Mickey is a real possibility.

“Remember what they did to that cartoon frog?… There was this cartoon frog that a regular cartoonist had made, and it was kind of a popular webcomic. And then these guys on 4chan turned the frog into a Nazi… And it drove the cartoonist who made the frog completely crazy because the frog became a hate symbol. It was listed on all — SPLC, ADL, all these different lists.”

“And we can do the same with Mickey Mouse. It’s not just enough to make Mickey Mouse a serial killer as you’re seeing in these movies. Mickey Mouse has to become the most odious kind of symbol in the entire world. And we have the ability to do it… Just through the power of memes.”

“That’s what’s gotta happen. ‘Cause Disney’s bad,” he said, “and Disney’s gotta go down.”

Conservatives have long been outraged at Disney for taking a stand against Florida’s Don’t Say Gay bill and have since sought to punish the corporation by any means necessary.

In addition to stripping Disney of control over its special tax district under which it has operated for years, DeSantis has threatened to build a prison next to Disney and called for state oversight of Disney World’s rides. Florida Republicans also threatened to tax Disney’s hotels and impose tolls on roads that lead into Disney World, as well as shut down its famous 15-mile monorail.

In 2022, Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council – a Southern Poverty Law Center-designated hate group, wrote that then-Disney CEO Bob Chapek was trying “to turn the company from a moderately woke entertainment giant into public enemy number one” and claimed, “The goal is to cut parents out completely, so the left can lead children down this dangerous path.”

After the webinar leaked, conservative activist Christopher Rufo declared, “We are going to war with Disney and the left-wing activists who are subverting parents and pushing gender ideology onto children.”