Disney Confirms Robot Trump Will Speak In Its Hall Of Presidents

It's been a "yuge" controversy.
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President Donald Trump could soon be moving up the road from Mar-a-Lago to Disney World — a robot version of him, anyway.

The Florida theme park has decided, after much deliberation, to let an animatronic version of Trump speak in its Hall of Presidents.

Disney World spokeswoman Jacquee Wahler confirmed to Florida-based cable channel News 13 that the robot Trump will say a few words when the attraction, which closed in January, reopens in the future. All presidents appear in the hall, but only some give a speech.

The techno-Trump’s unveiling was initially expected this coming weekend, but those plans were delayed while the park decided whether to follow existing precedent to have a robot version of the sitting president speak to the audience.

“The same thing that we’ve done with other presidents, is the same plan we have for President Trump,” Wahler said.

In May, Disney CEO Bob Iger told CNN that a script had been written and sent to the Trump team to edit. But Trump wasn’t making himself available to record a speech for his robot, Motherboard reported that month.

Trump’s polarizing presidency was also a “yuge” challenge for Walt Disney imagineers, because the park doesn’t want to be seen as endorsing or supporting some of Trump’s more controversial policies, Motherboard said.

Back in January, the announcement that Trump would be joining the other robot presidents in the hall sparked a petition from people who believed the family-friendly park would not be “an appropriate place” for a Trump speech ― especially given past Trump quotes like “Grab them by the pussy,” “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters,” and “My fingers are long and beautiful, as, it has been well documented, are various other parts of my body.”

No reopening date for the Hall of Presidents has been announced, but News 13 reports a park official said it would be some time in “late 2017.”

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