Ike Perlmutter
Issac “Ike” Perlmutter is the former Chairman at Marvel Entertainment at Disney, one of Trump’s largest backers, and one of three members of Donald Trump’s informal council for the Department of Veteran Affairs (“VA”) alongside Bruce Moskowitz and Marc Sherman.
That council had control of the second-largest government agency with no oversight, and with no nominations, elections, or appointments to the position. Despite the lack of any formal power or any training given, hundreds of documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by ProPublica show that the council had daily contact with VA officials, reviewing and ruling on policy and personnel decisions in the agency with over $170 billion in funding as of 2016. VA staffers claimed the three men got control of the VA because of their connection to Trump. The council was nicknamed the “Mar-a-Logo Crowd,” after Trump’s club in Palm Beach, Florida, where the group met regularly.
In a statement on the Mar-A-Logo Crowd, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said: “Three unqualified, unaccountable cronies used their personal relationship with the president and membership at his country club as leverage to exert personal influence over health care, technology, personnel and other key decisions at the Department of Veterans Affairs.”
Perlmutter’s involvement with the VA began after the 2016 election, when he and the fellow Mar-a-Lago Crowd members became “shadow rulers” of the VA. Ike used this position to promote his own partnerships by mode of VA events, and the council traveled to Mar-a-Lago on taxpayer’s dollars to encourage the VA to begin new programs and promote their own business ventures. The trio often ignored government rules and procedures, and in 2021 were accused of violating the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) by using their positions to bolster personal connections with corporations and disclosing plans to monetize veterans’ medical records. In the emails uncovered, disclosures about veterans’ health policies were made to Ivanka Trump’s personal email, and CEOs Tim Cook at Apple, Alex Gorsky at Johnson & Johnson, and Larry Merlo at CVS Health.
The group claimed: “while we were always willing to share our thoughts, we did not make or implement any type of policy, possess any authority over agency decisions, or direct government officials to take any actions…” Former officials claim that anyone who was “at odds with the Mar-A-Lago Crowd were pushed out or passed over,” including the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs and other key officers.
Perlmutter and his wife Laura, gave $21 million to America First in 2020 and contributed $10 million to the Right for America Super PAC, a group formed to back Trump in 2024.
Perlmutter was laid off from his position at Marvel Entertainment following years of disagreements with other executives. Following Perlmutter’s dismissal, a phone call between Perlmutter and DeSantis was published, in which he said, “Ron, you’re right. Disney doesn’t have the right to get involved with politics.”
Perlmutter still controls 30 million shares at Disney, as one of the largest individual Disney shareholders.