No Sad, Silent Trump For Disney’s Hall Of Presidents: Report

ORLANDO, FL — A petition drive that garnered more than 14,000 signatures wasn’t enough to get Walt Disney World to break a tradition that began during the Clinton Administration. A spokeswoman for the Florida theme park announced over the weekend that the animatronic being made for President Donald Trump’s entry in its Hall of Presidents will have a fully functional voice box.

A brouhaha over Trump’s entry in the iconic Disney attraction erupted earlier this year when a petition was launched on Change.org requesting a mute Trump. Matthew Rogers of Brooklyn, New York, kicked off the drive for a silent Trump.

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“Donald Trump ran a presidential campaign on hateful speech, misogyny, racism and xenophobia,” the petition reads. “In doing so, he has tainted the legacy of the American Presidency forever.” Since Disney’s Magic Kingdom is a place meant for families, Rogers said “it is not an appropriate place for a Donald Trump speech.”

As of Monday, June 26, 14,741 people agreed enough with the sentiments to sign Rogers’ petition. Disney, however, was not swayed by the campaign.

“The same thing that we’ve done with other presidents, is the same plan we have for President Trump,” Bay News 9 quoted Jacquee Wahler, vice president of communications for Walt Disney Resorts, as saying. Every president since Bill Clinton has been programmed to give a speech as people walk through the attraction.

Patch reached out to Wahler for additional details about the Hall of Presidents and Trump’s entry. She did not immediately return a request for comment.

Disney’s Hall of Presidents is a longstanding feature at the Orlando area theme park. The vision for the hall came from Walt Disney himself, the park’s website explains. Initial plans for the hall were nixed when Disney wasn’t happy with the wax figure technology available at the time.

“So Walt decided to work with his Imagineers to develop the first audio-animatronics figure in human form,” the website explains. The result of that collaboration was an animatronic of President Abraham Lincoln that debuted during the 1964 New York World’s Fair. The Disney World hall opened in 1971 in the Magic Kingdom’s Liberty Square. “Since then, every U.S. President, including the addition of Barack Obama, has been added to the roll call.”

The Halls of Presidents has been closed for months for refurbishing. It is slated to reopen in late 2017, but a firm date has not been announced.

Photo via Walt Disney World News by Gene Duncan