The Hall of Presidents has re-opened at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, and despite a slew of internet petitions to either keep the President Donald Trump audio-animatronic figure out of the attraction until after his time in the White House or to "silence" him if he were included, Trump is featured in the attraction and has a short speaking role.
Since 1993, when the attraction was completely re-vamped from its opening day show in 1971, the sitting president has given a short speech.
A video published to YouTube by WDWMagic showed the Trump animatronic and a portion of the new show. Like with former President Barack Obama's speech, Trump's speech appears to come at the end of the show before the final curtain.
Disney had been planning a full refurbishment of the show before Election Day--regardless of who won the election--and closed the attraction back in January. When the planned July 3rd re-opening failed to materialize, rumors spread that Disney was having some sort of conflict with the Trump administration, resulting in the delay. Disney issued a statement denying this, and VICE was forced to retract two articles on the topic.Regardless, there were still questions as to what was causing the delay and when the attraction would finally re-open. Disney did not do any sort of fanfare regarding Monday's soft opening or Tuesday's official re-opening, and even Cast Members (employees) who work the Hall of Presidents were reportedly surprised that the attraction was operating on Monday.
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As the unofficial Townhall.com Disney nut, I must say that I'm pleased with this end result, and that Trump's audio-animatronic looks, pardon the pun, tremendous. Disney's Imagineers managed to capture Trump's specific mannerisms very well (down to the slightly-too-long necktie), and it looks significantly less stiff and robotic than the Obama animatronic from 2009. (It's crazy how technology can improve so rapidly!)
The Hall of Presidents was hardly the Magic Kingdom's most popular attraction during any previous administration, and will probably remain a place for tired parents to take a short, air-conditioned nap on a hot Florida day. The controversy over Trump's inclusion was somewhat silly--but it all appears to finally be settled.
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