Disney CEO Bob Iger May Have Eye on White House

2 reports say he's being encouraged to run and is considering the possibility
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted May 5, 2017 9:17 AM CDT
Add Disney CEO Iger's Name to List of 2020 Maybes
Bob Iger, chairman and CEO of the Walt Disney Company.   (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File)

It looks like one name can be added to the early mix of potential 2020 candidates: Disney CEO Bob Iger. The Hollywood Reporter in March reported that Iger was seriously considering supporters' requests that he run for the Democratic nomination, and now a post at Axios amplifies that. "He's hearing quite a bit of: You should run—you'd be a great president," an unnamed source is quoted as saying. "He's hearing that quite a bit from prominent fundraisers and Democratic insiders." The item adds that the 66-year-old Iger is interested enough that he's been talking it over among friends, though he hasn't taken any formal steps. Axios does spot one potential issue, though: His Disney contract runs through July 2019, which narrows his campaigning window.

President Trump's win seems to have shown wealthy businesspeople that a direct route to the White House is possible, sans political experience, with a March post at New York noting that rumors have similarly surfaced about Oprah Winfrey and Mark Zuckerberg. "Who's next? Mark Cuban? Jeff Bezos?" Whoever it is can be certain of one thing, predicted the Hollywood Reporter: "unprecedented unity" from Hollywood. In the last election, big names such as David Geffen essentially sat it out, and the magazine doesn't expect that to happen in 2020. Iger topped the Hollywood Reporter's 2016 list of the most powerful people in entertainment; see the top 10 here. (More Bob Iger stories.)

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