The Guardian columnist John Harris recently interviewed heiress Abigail Disney. Despite her famous last name, Disney has chosen a life marked by activism and advocacy.
One area she is particularly vocal about is the responsibility that comes with extreme wealth. Disney has been a staunch supporter of higher taxes on millionaires and billionaires.
She is a longtime member of the Patriotic Millionaires, an American organization focused on changing the tax system so that people as rich as—or even richer than—its members pay more income and wealth-based taxes.
THIS 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 “Disney heiress Abigail Disney says that extreme wealth concentration in the hands of a few oligarchs is a threat to democracy the world over. A major philanthropist, she is calling for a tax on the richest people saying it’s crazy for billionaires to hold on to their wealth.”
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— Hope (@lettepaul.bsky.social) April 8, 2025 at 2:40 AM
And she touched on that again in her latest interview, saying:
"I am of the belief that every billionaire who can’t live on $999 million is kind of a sociopath."
"Like, why? You know, over a billion dollars makes money so fast that it’s almost impossible to get rid of. And so by just sitting on your hands, you become more of a billionaire until you’re a double billionaire."
"It’s a strange way to live when you have objectively more money than a person can spend."
Eat the rich. Specifically, all the billionaires above 999 million. Like Walt Disney-heir Abigail says; at some point you become so rich, you literally keep getting more money than you can spend. - Suggestion; what if Europe started the tariff war defunding Musk? www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
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— Gillian de Nooijer (@gilliandn.bsky.social) April 7, 2025 at 10:17 AM
Disney also had some harsh truths for Donald Trump.
"Trump is an inheritor. He never acknowledges it, but he wouldn’t have been able to do any of the things he did without an inheritance."
"He absorbed the lessons of inheriting money almost unfiltered: 'You have this money because you’re special'."
"If you read about his childhood, it’s like the textbook worst way to raise a person—you know, he was violent, he was a bully and he was rewarded for that, even as a very small child. And the more money he had, the more he exhibited these bad qualities, and the more people told him he was wonderful."
Elon Musk faired no better.
Abigail Disney: raise taxes on billionaires. Elon Musk doesn't share his wealth with anyone. search.app/ZPsCei4novtb...
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— Diane Ravitch🇺🇸❤️🇺🇦🗽🇨🇱🏳️🌈✡️🇨🇦 (@dianeravitch.bsky.social) April 8, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Disney stated:
"There are people suffering and dying today because of [Musk's] cut [to the PEPFAR program]. There are children who have HIV who shouldn’t because of Elon Musk. Now. As we sit here and talk."
DOGE is literally like the tax collectors from that Robin Hood Disney cartoon movie. Taking resources that benefit regular people away to unsuccessfully try balance out all their excessive spending on corporations and billionaires.
— pauloqs.bsky.social (@pauloqs.bsky.social) March 22, 2025 at 1:47 AM
PEPFAR stands for the President’s Emergency Plan For Aids Relief.
Created in 2003 by the administration of Republican President George W. Bush, the program is estimated to have saved 25 million lives by supplying medicine to people with HIV and AIDS around the world.
The Disney heiress added:
"That natural human proclivity to say, ‘Hmm, that doesn’t feel right’—[Musk] doesn’t have it. Trump doesn’t have it. They’re spending no time in shame, and shame is a righteous emotion."
"It’s not an emotion you want to live in, but it’s an emotion you want as a motivator sometimes. And where is it? Where’s the shame?"
Disney is also an inheritor, but not a wealth hoarder like Musk and Trump. By her 20s, she started donating large chunks of her inheritance—approximately $70 million as of 2021—mostly to organizations that help women.
People applauded her stance.
@BryceWeiner/X
Brava to Ms. Disney! I know a few billionaires are opposing the fascist regime, but wondering why so many others (who, IMHO *should* be speaking up) are silent - voices like Oprah, Jessica Alba, Rhianna....maybe they are vocal & I've missed it?
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— Trisha Miller (@trishamiller.bsky.social) April 12, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Hey, Bezos, Thiel, and the rest of you billionaires: Take the Disney Challenge.
— jbshakerman.bsky.social (@jbshakerman.bsky.social) April 12, 2025 at 6:48 AM
Are you man enough to take the Disney Challenge and live your life on $999 million.
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— jbshakerman.bsky.social (@jbshakerman.bsky.social) April 12, 2025 at 11:42 AM
When you’ve lost Disney… Disney heiress says any billionaire who can’t manage to share their wealth is ‘kind of a sociopath’ https://fortune.com/2025/04/07/abigail-disney-heiress-philanthropy-billionaires-share-wealth-sociopath-mackenzi-scott/ #TaxBillionaires #TaxTheRich #USPol
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— Democracy Matters :verified: (@DemocracyMattersALot.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy) April 7, 2025 at 10:38 PM
More people need to be saying this, make Billionaires out to be the freaks of nature that they are. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/07/abigail-disney-every-billionaire-who-cant-live-on-999m-is-kind-of-a-sociopath #NoBillionaires #TaxTheRich #AbigailDisney
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— Lazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈 (@Lazarou.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy) April 7, 2025 at 9:18 AM
@legitsci/X
@chuckstableford/X
Of her own heritage, Disney has stated:
"My grandfather, Roy O. Disney, and his brother, Walt Disney, started The Walt Disney Company. They came from Midwestern American poverty and everything they accomplished was a result of their hard work and creativity."
"[I am rich] only because of some quirks in the tax system, some good luck, and some very loving grandparents. But nothing else."
Her father, Roy E. Disney, was a familiar face in the Disney empire, and Disney herself is a film director and producer.
Her last name—and the privilege that came with it—put her in a unique position to speak about generational wealth and the societal responsibilities that should come with it.
In her 2024 OpEd titled "World leaders have a chance to raise taxes for rich people like me. I’m begging them to take it," Disney wrote:
"The need to tax rich people like me has never been so dire."
"Extreme wealth concentration in the hands of a few oligarchs is a threat to democracy the world over."