Disney CEO Bob Iger quits Trump’s advisory council after US withdraws from Paris climate deal

Getty / Drew Angerer

Disney CEO Bob Iger has quit President Trump’s business advisory council over Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement.

“As a matter of principle, I’ve resigned from the President’s Council over the #ParisAgreement withdrawal,” Iger tweeted. The idea behind the Paris agreement is limiting carbon emissions worldwide to help combat global warming.

Disney gave this longer statement from Iger: “Protecting our planet and driving economic growth are critical to our future, and they aren’t mutually exclusive. I deeply disagree with the decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement and, as a matter of principle, I’ve resigned from the President’s advisory council.”

Iger wasn’t the only one to make a similar move Thursday.

“Am departing presidential councils,” Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted. “Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world.”

Why was Iger on the council in the first place?

During Disney’s annual shareholder meeting earlier this year, an audience member took the mic and blasted Iger for being a member of Trump’s business advisory council.

Iger told the angry interlocutor he would respond with a quote from the hit musical “Hamilton.” He said he wanted to be “in the room where it happens,” a famous line from the Broadway musical (which almost certainly will be made into a movie one day — maybe by Disney).

The line Iger used is said several times throughout “Hamilton,” most notably in the song “The Room Where It Happens,” in which Aaron Burr expresses his frustrations that he wasn’t privy to back-channel negotiations that resulted in a stronger federal government, among other policy changes.

“I made a decision that I thought was in the best interests of our company and of our industry, to have an opportunity to express points of views directly to the president of the United States and to his administration,” Iger said. “I think it’s a privileged opportunity.”

He said his presence on the advisory council didn’t imply an endorsement of Trump or his policies. Iger’s response got applause from the crowd.

But now it seems that Trump’s decisions have gone too far against the Disney CEO’s principles.