Isaac "Ike" Perlmutter was fired as Marvel Entertainment Chairman in 2023 and later attempted to force his way back into Disney as part of an ultimately unsuccessful proxy battle against the House of Mouse.
While in charge, he was a major problem for Disney and, more specifically, Marvel Studios. He allegedly pushed back against movies like Black Panther and Captain Marvel being made because he felt people wouldn't buy toys depicting Black and female superheroes (something Iger named and shamed the executive for in his autobiography).
Perlmutter was also behind the initiative that saw the then-20th Century Fox-owned X-Men pushed to one side in the comics in favour of the Inhumans. He even undermined Kevin Feige - who he'd hoped to fire at one stage - by handing the likes of Daredevil and Luke Cage to Marvel Television.
So, very few people, least of all those working at Disney and Marvel Studios, shed too many tears when he was forced out of his role as Marvel Entertainment Chairman.
At an event on Monday evening at the Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, President-elect Donald Trump shared a very different take on how his friend's exit played out.
"The guy went from stone-cold broke to owning Disney," Trump said of Perlmutter in front of his supporters (via Variety). "Then he got out of Disney because they went woke. He didn’t want woke Donald Duck, right?"
Perlmutter has been one of Trump's biggest benefactors and is thought to have donated a significant amount of money to his successful 2024 Presidential campaign. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 star Sylvester Stallone was also in attendance for the event.
Iger previously called Perlmutter's ousting "a necessary step in the direction of us creating a more efficient company." He'd add, "I’d rather not get into details about this one. There was redundancy specific to the way Marvel was being managed."
The former Marvel Entertainment Chairman countered by saying, "I have long expected that my working relationship with Disney would end. That it should come as a result of my trying to help Disney improve its business should sadden many shareholders as it does me, the company’s largest individual shareholder."
"Despite my employment termination, I will continue to hold my shares of Disney and continue to seek improvements at the company for the benefit of all stakeholders," he said before ultimately deciding to sell his entire stake in the company for nearly $3 billion last year.
Let us know your thoughts on the President-elect's comments in the usual place.