Disney fires back at Vice: Trump robot to have speaking role

Disney is pushing back against reports that its Walt Disney World theme park was planning to keep a robot modeled after President Trump from delivering a speech in the “Hall of Presidents” exhibit, calling the reports “inaccurate”.

The “Hall of Presidents” features all of the U.S. presidents as animatronics giving speeches about the presidency. A Vice News report published in May said that the theme park was planning on adding a Trump robot to the attraction, but that unlike his predecessors, it wouldn’t speak.

Vice published a second report this month that instead said the Trump robot would speak but that White House officials had a heated exchange with Disney over who would write and record the speech and the timeline for the attraction’s reopening.

Thomas Smith, Editorial Content Director for the Disney Parks blog responded to the controversy in a blog post Tuesday.

“Despite some media reports to the contrary, President Trump will have a speaking role in The Hall of Presidents, like every president since 1993,” he wrote.

“We have been working closely with the current White House – just as we have with previous administrations – and the president’s recording session has been scheduled. The attraction will re-open in late 2017.”

A Disney representative told The Hill that the company was working with the Trump team just as they had for previous administrations, and called the Vice report “inaccurate.”

— Updated 9 p.m.