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South Carolina state treasurer Curtis Loftis has removed Disney from the approved investment list maintained by his office. The treasurer’s current portfolio contains an estimated $105 million dollars in Disney debt instruments which, according to a release from his office, “will mature and not be replaced.”
“The treasurer will focus on the equity portfolio in the coming weeks,” the release noted.
In an address to his staff this week, Loftis said he was concerned that “Disney has abandoned its fiduciary responsibilities to its investors and customers by joining far-left activist in boycotting legal, taxpaying, employment-creating corporations to further Disney’s political agenda.”
“Multi-billion-dollar corporations should not engage in boycotts designed to silence legitimate debate,” he said. “Since America’s founding, freedom of speech has been one of its core principals, and Disney should not engage in nefarious practices aimed at silencing those with less power and money.”
Loftis is in his fourth term as treasurer – having won reelection unopposed in 2022. He manages an estimated $70 billion in assets in his role as the “state’s banker.”
While Loftis’ move has a political justification, it is clearly warranted from a fiduciary standpoint. Disney’s stock has cratered over the last two-and-a-half years – plummeting from $197.16 per share in March of 2021 all the way down to $90.50 during Tuesday’s trading.
Loftis’ posture toward Disney differs dramatically from that of former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley – who is currently emerging as the GOP’s top alternative to former president Donald Trump. Earlier this year, Haley rebuked one of her presidential rivals – Florida governor Ron DeSantis – for his battle with the liberal corporate giant, offering to take its jobs in the event Disney left the Sunshine State.
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“Hey Disney, my home state will happily accept your 70,000+ jobs if you want to leave Florida,” Haley tweeted. “We’ve got great weather, great people, and it’s always a great day in South Carolina! (Our state)’s not woke, but we’re not sanctimonious about it either.”
Haley also seemed to indicate her former colleagues in the S.C. General Assembly – and current S.C. governor Henry McMaster – would be okay with the Disney pitch.
“South Carolina was a very anti-woke state, it still is, and if Disney would like to move their hundreds of thousands of jobs to South Carolina and bring the billions of dollars with them, I’ll let them know I’ll be happy to meet them in South Carolina and introduce them to the governor and the legislature that would welcome it,” Haley added.
No word yet on whether DeSantis or fellow 2024 presidential contender Vivek Ramaswamy will use Loftis’ announcement to draw a bead on Haley’s prior comments.
Ramaswamy, incidentally, met with Loftis and S.C. attorney general Alan Wilson last year for what the treasurer referred to as a “a robust discussion about the impacts of ESG investing.”
For more on that subject, click here.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and seven children.
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15 comments
Conservatives love cancel culture.
Your statement is so rich. Hypocrisy at its finest. Go away, you annoying dung fly.
More Republicans against free speech and the free market. Trying to cancel Disney…lol…which is infinitely more popular than MAGA snowflake politicians.
It must really suck to be a Republican voter these days. You only have inept morons to choose from these days.
Oh well, enjoy whatever lame stuff you guys are allowed to watch/listen/drink anymore dictated by your ninny religious nut politicians ;-)
Curtis Loftis, the best Treasurer our state could ever wish to have. I would love to see him as Governor, one day!
This is stupid.
‘Bout time Disney starts answering for its perverse, debased and woke propaganda. Not Walt Disney’s “family” entertainment by any stretch of the imagination. Sick.
Did you hear about how the co-founder of Mom’s for Liberty is into bisexual threesomes with other women? And her husband , head of the Florida GOP is accused of rape?
Thank god they are taking a stand against Disney ;-)
WTF?
Is Loftis’s reacting Disney pulling advertising from X / Twitter because Elon Musk said or posted something antisemitic? General Motors and other companies also pulled their advertising dollars out.
As far as I know it, America is still a free country. Companies are free to choose where to place their advertising.
To Musk: “Freedom from Consequences is not a protected Constitutional Right.”
I terminated my Twitter account in April 2023 when Musk revoked the permanent ban on one Twitter account.
It’s rather humorous (also sad) when folks delete their accounts just because (I assume Donald Trump) somebody got their Twitter account reinstated which he does not even use anymore. That’s a symptom of Trump derangement syndrome. Makes me want to be on Twitter with fewer crazy lunatics on there.
Hey Katie NoLastName,
Bless your heart, sweetie. X has been descending into a cesspool ever since Elon Musk bought Twitter. I have spent extremely little time on Twitter. I am a cisgender (look that up in a dictionary, if you know how), heterosexual male. The last few accounts that started following me on X that want to show me their titties. However, these women resemble Roseanne Barr instead of qualifying as a Playboy centerfold.
If you want to join others in the mud pit, join them.
BTW, I hope you find a cure for your RTD, Rabid Trump Disease.
“I terminated my Twitter account in April 2023 when Musk revoked the permanent ban on one Twitter account.” This, everyone, is a prime example of Trump Derangement Syndrome…although we need to come to realize their are now two variants: Trump Derangement Loathing Syndrome (TDLS) and Trump Derangement Sycophant Syndrome (TDSS). Basically the two outward extremes. One who would leave a highly popular and informative social media platform with hundreds of millions of users, many of which probably would be OK with this dude…but then dump the WHOLE THING because ONE PERSON was allowed to have a voice. On the other hand, we have the TDSS, who doesn’t care that Trump would “shiv” any other courageous conservative fighting in the trenches alongside of him for the same causes if he thinks that person is a threat to him regaining the presidency. Or turn a blind eye to the harm done to this country under his leadership by the CDC/NIH with all the covid lockdowns and the nation’s first directly self-inflicted recession, which also entailed the largest single-year increase in the national debt in national history and directly contributed to the inflation that now results in the average family needing about 700 bucks more PER MONTH just to get by.
Bless your heart, Catfish!
I hope you find a cure for your RTD, Rabid Trump Disease.
Conservative virtue signaling
Hey Catfish, and also Katie,
I don’t take the cowardly approach of hiding behind a pseudonym for anonymity like Catfish.
Both parties f’ed up in 2016. The Democrats chose Hillary because it was “her term”. The Republicans chose an unqualified, belligerent, temperamental person as their candidate. Trump thinks that he can lead through threats and intimidation. Trump has no clue how government works. With six bankruptcies, Trump is the business genius that he thinks he is.
I spend very little time on Twitter compared to other social media platforms. Twitter was going downhill before Musk was forced to buy Twitter. Musk’s action just convinced me to close my account. Hamas’s only goal is the eradication of Jews. Hitler tried to do the same and failed.
I still cannot fathom why Donald Trump ran for president. He doesn’t like living under a microscope, but every past president has been scrutinized, and either been praised or condemned for actions taken, or for inaction. He hates being criticized. Just look at the garbage that he heaped on Obama, claiming that he wasn’t born a US citizen and demanded to see his birth certificate.
What prompted Trump to run for president? Here’s my guess as to how it occurred. One of Trump’s son said “Father, when I grow up, I want to be president.” Trump responded, “Barron, here hold my beer. Watch this!” That phrase is often said before getting noted on the Darwin Awards.
Penjelasannya sangat mendalam dan komprehensif, luar biasa!