While on a trip to Disneyland in California on Saturday with his wife and children, Vice President JD Vance rode the theme park’s ride that’s most associated with racial reconciliation, despite Vance railing for years against “woke” culture.
Vance was caught on video jogging toward his children—and was mocked for not having an “alpha male” running style despite the right’s obsession with phony masculinity—and riding “Tiana’s Bayou Adventure,” which opened in November 2024.
The ride, which is based on the film “The Princess and the Frog” featuring the Black princess Tiana, replaced “Splash Mountain,” which was based on the classic Disney film “Song of the South.”
Disney decided to refurbish the ride to make a break with that film’s racist past. “Song of the South” has been controversial since it was first released in 1946 for depicting a falsely idyllic setting on a southern plantation following slavery. According to the NAACP, the film “helps to perpetuate a dangerously glorified picture of slavery.”
When it announced that Tiana would become the new theme of the ride, Disney said, “The new concept is inclusive—one that all of our guests can connect with and be inspired by, and it speaks to the diversity of the millions of people who visit our parks each year.”
This is precisely the sort of inclusive racial reconciliation that has been under sustained attack by the Trump administration since Day 1.
President Donald Trump and Vance have used the terminology “woke,” which was originally used by Black activists to discuss racial awareness, as pejorative, falsely claiming that addressing racism is discriminatory. And they’ve used their war on “wokeness” as a cover for attacking government efforts to address racism and to push bigoted policies and rhetoric.
Before he rode the log flume ride, enjoying the newly “woke” theme park attraction, Vance attacked Disney for being culturally aware.
Vance was part of the right-wing attack on Disney led by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ahead of his failed presidential campaign. In 2022, Vance claimed that Disney had “declared war on America’s children” and complained a year later that Disney was “woke” and supported immigration policies that stole from U.S. citizens.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom mocked Vance’s Disney trip, writing, “Tired: trashing California for political purposes. Wired: visiting & vacationing in California more than your home state this year.”
Newsom also noted that many of the people who work at Disneyland are immigrants and contrasted that with the Trump administration’s attacks on immigrant communities.
Vance’s visit also attracted the attention of protesters against the Trump administration’s ongoing abuse of immigrant communities.
The Disney trip underlined another facet of Vance’s character that has triggered mockery and criticism in the past: his lack of principles. He once called Trump “America’s Hitler” and described himself as a “never Trump guy,” but he threw those criticisms to the side when he was given a shot at being Trump’s vice president.
Now, despite being part of the right’s disingenuous anti-Disney campaign, Vance was clearly happy to enjoy a “woke” moment at the Happiest Place on Earth.