Was Trump Animatronic in Disney Corridor of Presidents Initially Constructed to Resemble Hillary Clinton?

For years, a rumor has circulated on-line that an animatronic model of former U.S. President Donald Trump that appeared in Walt Disney World’s Corridor of Presidents attraction was initially designed to resemble Hillary Rodham Clinton, Trump’s opponent within the 2016 presidential election.

In 2024, for instance — within the months earlier than Trump was elected to serve a nonconsecutive second time period — one X publish identifying (archived) the declare because the poster’s “goofiest low-stakes conspiracy idea” had obtained round 107,000 likes and 4,800 reposts on the time of this writing.

You already know which one is mine: the Trump animatronic from Corridor of Presidents is a rapidly retooled Hillary https://t.co/15tZmdCueQ pic.twitter.com/rK0QzczmG5

— Nikolaj🥥🌴🐝🇺🇦 (@nikicaga) September 4, 2024

The rumor additionally appeared (archived) in numerous (archived) different X posts (archived) in 2024, in addition to on TikTok (archived) and Reddit (archived).

Positioned in Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, the Corridor of Presidents opened in 1971. It contains a brief stage present carried out by animatronic variations of each U.S. president, as much as and together with the present one. When a brand new president is elected, the Corridor usually shuts down for a time frame to permit Disney’s Imagineers — the time period the corporate uses for the staff concerned in designing, constructing, and sustaining Disney’s bodily points of interest — time to organize a brand new presidential animatronic for the present.

In line with the rumor, Disney’s Imagineers have been so assured in Clinton’s 2016 victory that they started work on an animatronic based mostly on her earlier than the election. Allegedly, Trump’s win left the Imagineers scrambling to remake the Clinton bot in Trump’s likeness, leading to an animatronic that gave the impression to be an uncanny hybrid of the 2 politicians.

The rumor started to circulate (archived) on social media shortly after Trump’s animatronic made its first look in December 2017 — almost a 12 months after Trump’s Jan. 20, 2017, inauguration. It shortly attracted media consideration, with mentions in The Week and the Washington Post. In early 2018, comic Ellen DeGeneres riffed on the speculation, jokingly suggesting that Disney had repurposed an animatronic from Ellen’s Power Journey, an attraction that ran at Disney’s Epcot park till 2004.

In 2021, when the Corridor of Presidents reopened following Joe Biden’s inauguration as president, multiple Disney bloggers famous that the corporate appeared to have taken benefit of the attraction’s closure to revamp the Trump animatronic’s look. Aspect-by-side images (archived) did present a transparent distinction within the animatronic’s look earlier than and after the attraction reopened in 2021, though Disney has not confirmed that the corporate made any adjustments to it.

100% the unique corridor of presidents trump animatronic was speculated to be hillary. they even changed it with an up to date one later https://t.co/MSVG1InAKG pic.twitter.com/1jlF4YC89q

— 🕴️Boss👻✨ (@TMMBosstones) September 4, 2024

Some web customers have prompt Disney changed all or a part of the Trump bot, pointing (archived) to an animatronic head (archived) that was on show — with out pores and skin — on the Walt Disney Archives in 2023. In line with a placard that accompanied it, the pinnacle was a part of the Corridor of Presidents attraction from 2016 till 2021. Disney has not confirmed that the pinnacle was a part of the unique Trump animatronic.

Once we first seemed into the rumor that Trump’s animatronic was initially based mostly on Clinton in 2021, we found no concrete proof to help it. Two years later, nevertheless, in June 2023, a blogger named Alex Goldman revealed a Substack e-newsletter containing what he claimed was affirmation of the speculation within the type of a press release from an nameless Imagineer who labored at Disney across the time of the 2016 election.

In line with Goldman, the alleged former Imagineer advised him:

Everybody was constructive that Hillary was going to win a lot in order that they created her animatronic, then they obtained caught with their pants down when Trump gained. It may well take months if not years to design a brand new animatronic. I keep in mind seeing the facial designs for the Hillary animatronic at the very least six months earlier than the election and an intern requested the 3D artist what would occur if Trump gained, and he laughed and simply stated, “Then, we’re screwed.” … My guess is that they in all probability initially tried to salvage the animatronic by preserving Hillary’s cranium and placing Trump’s pores and skin over prime of it.

Goldman’s report of the alleged former Imagineer’s assertion attracted media attention in 2023, a few of it credulous. Nonetheless, in his e-newsletter, Goldman himself included a disclaimer noting that he couldn’t assure the person was telling the reality in regards to the animatronic — and even that the person ever labored for Disney. 

Moreover, though Goldman’s supply stated they “keep in mind seeing the facial designs” for a Clinton animatronic, they didn’t in actual fact declare of their assertion to have concrete data that Disney repurposed a Clinton animatronic for Trump. As a substitute, they used the phrases “guess” and “in all probability” to border that a part of the assertion.

Goldman didn’t reply to a request for additional info which may help the credibility of his supply.

Snopes has additionally reached out to the Walt Disney Firm for touch upon the speculation, and can replace this story if and once we hear again.

Finally, within the absence of any definitive assertion from both Disney or a verifiable worker with data of the state of affairs, there was no demonstrable proof to both help or disprove the declare that the animatronic used to painting Trump in Disney’s Corridor of Presidents from 2017 to 2021 was initially designed to resemble Clinton. For that cause, we have rated the declare as unproven.

We have beforehand seemed into different claims about Walt Disney World’s Corridor of Presidents, together with a rumor that Disney was completely closing the Corridor of Presidents attraction after the 2024 presidential election.

Snopes’ archives contributed to this report.

Sources