Disney CEO Bob Iger reportedly gave his soccer team the green light to launch an anti-ICE campaign after the company figurehead previously took heat for kowtowing to President Donald Trump’s demands.
Sources told Deadline that Iger and his wife, Willow Bay, signed off on a massive marketing push for Angel City FC’s “Immigrant City”—a solidarity initiative that the women’s soccer team rolled out on Wednesday against the Trump administration’s mass deportation raids in Los Angeles.
In protest against Trump—who has sought to deport migrants en masse—the women’s soccer club printed and handed out 10,000 T-shirts featuring “Immigrant City F.C.” and “Los Angeles Is For Everyone” written on them at a June 14 match.
The team also released a defiant statement on Instagram, writing, “At Angel City, we believe in the power of belonging. We know that our city is stronger because of its diversity and the people and families who shape it, love it, and call it home.”
Iger and Bay, who jointly bought a controlling stake in ACFC last year for around $100 million, have been consulted at every step of the campaign and have supported the moves, Deadline reported. Bay is dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.
The club’s other high-profile owners—including actors Jessica Chastain, Eva Longoria, and Jennifer Garner—have also signed off.
A source familiar with the situation told the Daily Beast that “Iger is not involved in the day-to-day management of ACFC” and that “the ‘Immigrant City’ call was a multi-level decision within the organization and not Iger’s.”
Angel City FC and Disney did not immediately return the Beast’s requests for comment.
In his role as the head of Disney, Iger has signaled that he is more reticent to defy Trump.
The Daily Beast exclusively reported last month that Iger told the hosts of The View, the politics-centered daytime talk show owned by Disney through ABC News, to tone down their criticism of Trump. The news earned Iger criticism of his own.
In June, ABC News fired star host Terry Moran over a social media post he made that called Trump aide Stephen Miller “a world-class hater.” The network said the post was a violation of its policies on objectivity and professionalism.
ABC News also generated significant blowback last year after it agreed to donate $15 million to Trump’s presidential library and apologize on air to settle his lawsuit against the network and star anchor George Stephanopoulos.
The ICE raids in L.A. have become a flashpoint over the last month. To the outrage of his critics, Trump deployed thousands of National Guard and Marine troops to quell the protests against the wishes of California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass.
