Disney CEO was “seriously exploring” a Presidential run but scrapped it in favor of the Fox deal

Even before the last election, Iger started to think about running for president himself. “Willow initially not only hated the idea,” he says, “but put her foot down because she thought it would be highly destructive to our family and to our lives.” But the thought nagged at him, and with his wife’s reluctant permission, he was in the process of seriously exploring a run when the Fox deal sealed his fate. “The thought I had was coming from the patriot in me, growing up at a time when we respected our politicians not only for what they stood for but because of what they accomplished. I am horrified at the state of politics in America today, and I will throw stones in multiple directions. Dialogue has given way to disdain. I, maybe a bit naively, believed that there was a need for someone in high elected office to be more open-minded and willing to not only govern from the middle but to try to shame everyone else into going to the middle.”