What could happen to Disney World's Hall of Presidents after Donald Trump's win: How Disney works politicians into show

Trump already has an audio-animatronic figure inside the Magic Kingdom attraction, while one ex-Imagineer speculated that Disney 'has a decision to make' about the show's future.

As evidenced by Hollywood's reaction to the 2024 presidential election between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, politics are now, more than ever, a bitter, divisive affair across the social spectrum. Still, amid the clashes and chatter on either end of the bisect, the mirth that inspired the legendary Walt Disney's original, decades-old vision for a theme park attraction bridging gaps between entertainment and education still endures with magical flair inside Disney World's storied Hall of Presidents.

But, how does the 53-year-old historical show's enduringly optimistic presentation about the United States, its democracy, and its future — as told by audio-animatronic recreations of presidents both dead and alive — achieve its monumental spectacle, even though the country around it feels like a fractured whole amid an alarming political rift?

Below, Entertainment Weekly outlines a brief history of the Florida resort's exclusive attraction — and how its soul might be impacted as the nation transitions into a second-term Trump presidency.

Walt Disney's vision for an apolitical, educational fantasy

To understand where the beloved attraction might be headed under Trump's second (and, for only the second time in American history, non-consecutive) term, it's important to look into his past.

The show guests experience at Magic Kingdom today is a much grander version of the original iteration — though Walt's affinity for presidential affairs still has humble roots in his childhood, as he even once attended school dressed as Abraham Lincoln, according to the Disney+ docuseries Behind the Attraction.

Later, amid the booming success of Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., throughout the 1950s and 1960s, he and his brother Roy Disney (who often served as the grounding, business-oriented executor of his sibling's broad, visionary ideas) devised a new attraction to serve as both an educational and entertaining experience for all ages. Inspired by a live show about American presidents at the 1944 World's Fair in Chicago, Walt tapped into deep interest in historical happenings, while Roy instead focused on their pocketbooks — which, at the time, couldn't support the $4.4 million in development costs required to satisfy Walt's desire to create a show at Disneyland that would unite lifelike, mechanized versions of former U.S. leaders in one place at a new themed area called Liberty Street.

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Though the Liberty Street project was shelved for being far too expensive to build, Walt employed a small number of designers to work on evolving the park's audio-animatronic technology. The endeavor was all leading up to the 1964-65 World's Fair in New York City, where the Illinois government partnered with Disney to fund the rollout of a lone audio-animatronic figure in the state's pavilion at the expo. The resulting attraction was a live show called Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln — an adaptation of which still operates to this day on Main Street at Disneyland.

Walt's dream became a bit of a nightmare, however; while Lincoln's implicit appeal resonated in a progressive city amid developments like the Civil Rights Act of 1964, technical issues rendered the show itself a “terrible disaster,” according to Disney Legend and animator Marc Davis in a clip from Behind the Attraction. Scholar and author Bill Cotter recalled on the program that the Lincoln figure had a “robotic fit” during the show's debut, in which he “smashed his chair into kindling." The team fine-tuned the figure over the days ahead, and following its success, Walt and Roy trained their attention on Disney's next big venture: the Florida Project, which would eventually open as Walt Disney World in October 1971.

Walt, however, wouldn't live to see the opening of the Florida destination, as he died in 1966 — Roy still took his brother's idea for the presidential showcase and expanded it to include all presidents up to that point, reviving the Liberty Street concept (this time as Liberty Square), and incorporating advancements in audio-animatronic technology to broaden the scope of Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln for its installment in Magic Kingdom.

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Recreating presidential figures as, well, figures

According to historian Doris Kearns Goodwin in an interview for Behind the Attraction, Disney "wanted to present to the people a sense of the presidents as human beings who had their own fears, worries, strengths, and weaknesses" inside the attraction. This meant recreating presidential figures that wouldn't only look like real-life people audiences knew very, very well — but also making sure they sounded like the familiar politicians Americans grew up with. While an actor obviously voiced Lincoln at the World's Fair, it became increasingly clear over the years that Disney would need to aim big in the name of authenticity.

“We would often take the opportunity to go to the White House,” said Disney Imagineer Gary Landrum, also adding in a Behind the Attraction interview that clearance for the team to enter the building would often take several months to complete before voice recordings of sitting presidents could begin. In addition to Imagineers capturing authentic vocal performances from the likes of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, they'd also shoot them on video to "understand their individual idiosyncrasies" and physical movements, which he added would be translated into the audio-animatronic figures inside the Hall of Presidents.

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"Well, there you go," Obama said upon first seeing his own audio-animatronic. "They made me better-looking!"

Landrum observed that the fluidity of the attraction is part of what makes it exciting, but that also comes with inherent challenges as Disney regularly adapts the show to fit "a built-in new chapter every four to eight years" as new leaders are elected to the office, he said.

Looking ahead to Trump's second term — and what it could mean for the Hall of Presidents

Retired Imagineer Jim Shull caused a minor stir following the 2024 election, when he shared on X that he felt Disney was at a crossroads when it came to deciding the fate of the Hall of Presidents — which, up to that point, hadn't necessarily been a topic of wide speculation.

"The Walt Disney Company has a decision to make after the election to keep or close the Hall of Presidents," Shull wrote on the platform alongside a photo that, instead of the Hall of Presidents show building, depicted architecture from Epcot's American Adventure area. "There is no good outcome whatever decision the #MagicKingdom makes."

Despite using incorrect imagery, Shull's point isn't entirely ludicrous. Given the increasingly hostile, bitterly divided nature of American politics, the Hall of Presidents show has become an inevitable, mini zone of contention, where park guests often take the opportunity to cheer for their political figures of choice — with Trump's audio-animatronic figure often eliciting loud cheers from inside the building. Entertainment Weekly has experienced this phenomenon firsthand, while others responded to Shull's post with stories of their own.

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"The last few times I've watched this show, fans in the crowd boo'd the [Joe] Biden animatronic then erupted for the Trump one. And I'm sure the reverse has happened. Either way, it's a weird experience now," one user wrote, while another stated: "I’m sorry your candidate lost but that doesn’t mean the whole thing has to close. Should it have closed four years ago when Biden was installed because many didn’t want him to win? This is American politics and the beauty of this attraction."

While many of Disney's attractions nod to things that impact its guests in the real world outside its gates (take, for example, Epcot's numerous attractions about humanity's entanglement with environmental forces, like the Moana-inspired Journey of Water or the Living With the Land boat ride), the company largely remains apolitical when it comes to its theme park presentation (though, surprisingly, its dress code does not prohibit political attire on guests), and it's becoming more and more difficult for the Hall of Presidents to fulfill such a neutral mandate.

The show's structure also hasn't faced such a narrative predicament before, as no contemporary president has served non-consecutive terms since the attraction began adding new figures. The nation's only other non-consecutive leader, Grover Cleveland, is not of primary focal importance in the show, as opposed to the more modern presidents who have significant speaking roles featuring the real-life politicians' voices. Typically, the sitting president delivers the oath of office, followed by (in some cases, like Trump's first term, but not during Biden's) a short speech.

Following the oath, Trump's figure — which debuted in 2017 — also gives a speech that touches on issues of American history, telling the crowd that the country is one built on those who "rose up to defend our freedoms." He also highlights the "achievement of the American spirit," which saw people fight and die to "bring the blessings of liberty to all our people." Following his second inauguration, the attraction would, in theory, have to either revert to Trump's previous speech or work with the president-elect on a new one. The latter scenario feels doubtful, as Trump publicly criticized Disney on social media in recent years.

In May 2023, Trump posted that "Disney has become a Woke and Disgusting shadow of its former self, with people actually hating it," and that it wold face "irreparable damage" if the company didn't "go back to what it once was." Trump failed to fully establish what that standard was, instead using the opportunity to blame another target of his ire, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who'd had prior legal drama with the company.

Representatives for Disney World did not respond to EW's request for comment about its plans for the attraction.

For the time being, the future of the Hall of Presidents feels assured, but, as the results of the 2024 and 2016 elections proved, nothing is certain — and Disney can (and will) adapt if the political landscape renders the attraction inhospitable for visitors.

At its core, regardless of which side of the political aisle you sit on, there's an energy inside the Hall of Presidents that harkens back to the essence of Walt's original vision for his parks as environments where adults and children can surrender to the powers of transformative fantasy.

"It was truly a life-changing moment to be in the room to hear him talk and to watch his articulation," Imagineering's Carmen Smith said in Behind the Attraction, of observing Obama's recording session. "So many people are involved in making this one audio-animatronics figure be as perfect as it can be. When our guest is in the theater, he’s talking to them."

As long as they're not talking back, the Hall of Presidents may hold office at Disney World for the foreseeable future.