Disney names Josh D’Amaro CEO, Dana Walden president and chief creative officer
James Gorman, Chairman of The Walt Disney Company Board of Directors stands with newly named CEO of The Walt Disney Company, Josh D’Amaro, newly named President and Chief Creative Officer of The Walt Disney Company Dana Walden and current CEO of The Walt Disney Company, Robert A. Iger. (Disney)
(NEW YORK) — The Walt Disney Company announced on Tuesday that Josh D’Amaro will become the company’s next CEO in March, replacing current chief executive Bob Iger when he steps down from the role this year. Dana Walden will become the company’s president and chief creative officer.
D’Amaro, chair of Disney’s experiences unit, oversees a global network of theme parks and hotel resorts. He also leads the company’s cruise ships and consumer products, among other initiatives. D’Amaro formally takes over the CEO role on March 18 at Disney’s upcoming annual meeting.
“Josh D’Amaro is an exceptional leader and the right person to become our next CEO,” Iger said in a statement on Tuesday.
“He has an instinctive appreciation of the Disney brand, and a deep understanding of what resonates with our audiences, paired with the rigor and attention to detail required to deliver some of our most ambitious projects. His ability to combine creativity with operational excellence is exemplary and I am thrilled for Josh and the company,” Iger added.
D’Amaro, 54, joined the company in 1998.
Walden is set to become the company’s president and chief creative officer, Disney said. Walden previously served as the head of Disney’s entertainment media, news and content businesses, including its streaming service.
Iger began his current tenure as CEO in 2022, after previously serving in the role from 2005 to 2020. He also served as chairman over that period. After stepping aside in 2020, Iger served as executive chairman and chairman of the board until 2021.
In a letter to shareholders in January, Disney Board Chairman James Gorman described management succession planning as a “top priority” for the company’s board of directors, according to a securities filing.
“Oversight of the process is led by our dedicated Succession Planning Committee, and all directors have actively participated in a rigorous and ongoing evaluation of potential successor candidates, including direct engagement, performance assessment and consideration of leadership capabilities aligned with the Company’s long-term strategy,” Gorman added.
US President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference at the White House, Washington, D.C., US on February 20, 2026. Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — President Donald Trump rushed to enact new tariffs and vowed to preserve others after a recent Supreme Court ruling knocked out most of his levies.
Businesses and consumers now face a different set of tariffs, which amount to taxes paid by importers for goods shipped into the U.S. Oftentimes, importers pass along tariff-related costs to consumers, raising retail prices.
The nation’s overall tariff rate has dropped, meaning some products have gained relief from tariff-related price pressures, some analysts told ABC News. But levies remain in place for nearly all imported goods, including duties as high as 50%, hiking costs for some companies and shoppers, they added.
“In general, we’ve seen tariffs pushing up on prices. That won’t go away,” Jason Miller, a professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University, told ABC News.
The high court ruled on Friday that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEPPA) does not authorize Trump to impose levies, nullifying 70% of Trump’s tariffs after they collected more than $140 billion through December, the Yale Budget Lab found.
During his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, Trump criticized the Supreme Court decision, describing at as a “very unfortunate ruling,” and asserting that he retains the ability to impose tariffs under “fully approved and tested alternative legal statutes.”
In a social media post on Monday, Trump affirmed what he said was his authority to issue tariffs, saying he does not need to consult Congress before erecting new trade levies.
Trump also reiterated his commitment to his policy approach, warning other countries that they may face a “much higher Tariff, and worse.”
A 10% global tariff took effect on Tuesday, marking the first duty enacted by Trump since the high court’s decision. Trump issued the levy under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which allows the president to hike tariffs for 150 days as means of addressing “large and serious” balance-of-payments deficits, or disparities between a country’s total payments in transactions with other nations and its total earnings. In order to extend the Section 122 tariffs beyond 150 days, Trump would need to secure congressional approval.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said this week that Democrats would oppose an extension of Section 122 tariffs, which could deny Trump the 60 votes necessary to overcome a potential Senate filibuster.
Trump has vowed to hike the Section 122 tariff to 15%. As of Tuesday, however, the president had not issued an order formalizing that increase.
A 15% Section 122 tariff would result in price increases amounting to $800 in additional costs for an average U.S. household over the next 150 days, the Yale Budget Lab projected.
“That’s hundreds of dollars that you’re going to be paying as a result of these tariffs,” Raymond Robertson, professor for trade, economics and public policy at Texas A&M University, told ABC News.
Robertson noted the ultimate cost impact may be slightly lower than projected as consumers shift away from products that display noticeable tariff-induced price hikes. But, he added, tariff-impacted products will be all but impossible for shoppers to avoid.
“These tariffs are hitting across the board,” Robertson said.
The Trump administration also plans to maintain sector-specific tariffs imposed under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 and conclude pending investigations that could authorize additional levies, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement on Friday.
That statute permits the White House to levy tariffs on products of importance to national security. Under the law, the White House must await the result of an investigation undertaken by the Commerce Department before imposing a tariff.
Under Section 232, for instance, steel and aluminum face a 50% tariff, putting upward pressure on prices for tableware, motorcycles, canned goods and assorted children’s products, analysts previously told ABC News.
A 50% tariff also applies to some copper products, while 25% tariffs remain for cars and auto parts. Those levies exclude a host of goods compliant with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, a free trade agreement.
To be sure, some products will experience a reduction of tariffs in the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision. Products from China, Brazil, Vietnam and India will likely gain notable tariff relief, since those nations faced significant tariffs under the legal authority that was struck down by the Supreme Court, Miller said.
Electronics and clothing are among the products that could benefit from softer tariffs.
If the Supreme Court had opted to uphold tariffs issued under IEPPA, the nation’s effective tariff rate would have remained at 16%, the Yale Budget Lab said. Taking into account Section 122 tariffs, the effective tariff rate now stands at 13.7%, the group said.
“The good news for consumers is there’s an overall decrease in tariff rates,” Miller said. “What creates a challenge is we don’t know exactly what the new landscape will look like.”
A Nike logo is seen at the Nike flagship store, Dec. 20, 2019, in New York. (Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The federal agency that investigates workplace discrimination is seeking court enforcement of a subpoena it has issued to Nike as it pursues allegations that the athletic apparel maker has been discriminating against its white employees in its corporate diversity policies.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed its motion this week in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, where Nike has a factory that produces its famous AIR footwear technology.
The agency’s charges against Nike date to 2024, when commission member, and current Trump-appointed chair, Andrea Lucas alleged that Nike had been engaging in a pattern of discriminatory practices, including “race-based workforce representation quotas,” and hiring, promotion, demotion and firing decisions that were a function of “disparate treatment against White employees, applicants, and training program participants.”
In its filing, the EEOC says the charges were not triggered by internal complaints from workers, but were “based on publicly available information regarding Nike,” including the company’s public pledges to have “30% representation of racial and ethnic minorities at Director level and above in the U.S.,” and 35% representation across its entire U.S. corporate workforce.
The EEOC said in the filing that it has gone to court because the company provided some, but not all, of the data the agency requested on the racial and ethnic makeup of its workforce following the issuance of a subpoena last September.
“Respondent NIKE’s failure to comply with the subpoena has delayed and hampered the EEOC’s investigation of alleged unlawful employment practices under Title VII” of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the motion states.
In a statement to ABC News, a Nike spokesperson said that the EEOC’s move to seek court enforcement of the subpoena “feels like a surprising and unusual escalation.”
“We have had extensive, good-faith participation in an EEOC inquiry into our personnel practices, programs, and decisions and have had ongoing efforts to provide information and engage constructively with the agency,” the Nike statement said. “We have shared thousands of pages of information and detailed written responses to the EEOC’s inquiry and are in the process of providing additional information.”
Nike’s statement further said it is “committed to fair and lawful employment practices and follow[s] all applicable laws, including those that prohibit discrimination,” adding, “we believe our programs and practices are consistent with those obligations and take these matters seriously. We will continue our attempt to cooperate with the EEOC and will respond to the petition.”
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The S&P 500 hit a record high on Wednesday as the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran entered its second week, appearing to boost hopes of a resolution to the Middle East conflict.
The uptick in markets came hours after President Donald Trump reiterated his desire to wind down the conflict, saying the war is “very close to over” in a portion of an interview with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo that aired on Tuesday.
The S&P 500 climbed 0.5% on Wednesday, registering at 7,005.78 points. The index reached a previous high of 7,002.28 points on Jan. 28.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 125 points, or 0.2%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq increased 1.1%.
Markets have swung dramatically over the weeks following the start of the U.S.-Israel attacks on Iran on Feb. 28, as investors weathered a historic global oil shock and digested mixed signals from Trump.
Stocks moved higher on a largely consistent basis in April, however, in response to an apparent willingness on the part of both sides to end fighting and negotiate a temporary truce.
The U.S. continues to mount a naval blockade of Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz, exerting pressure on Tehran by choking off a key source of revenue.
On Wednesday, the commander of the Khatam Al-Anbiya Central Headquarters of Iran’s armed forces said the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports is a “violation of the ceasefire,” in a statement published by the official Islamic Republic News Agency.
The war prompted Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway that facilitates the transport of about one-fifth of the global supply of oil and natural gas.
The disruption amounted to the “most severe oil supply shock in history,” the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a new report on Tuesday. Oil and gasoline prices soared, prompting some economists to warn of a possible recession.
U.S. oil prices have fallen from a recent peak achieved in the early days of the war, but costs remain nearly 40% higher than pre-war levels.
U.S.-Iran talks in Pakistan over the weekend failed to secure a peace deal. Trump said that Iran’s alleged unwillingness to abandon its nuclear program was the key sticking point, and that the U.S. would respond with a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which began Monday.
Israel, meanwhile, has continued ground operations and intense strikes in Lebanon, where it is engaged with the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he supported the ceasefire with Iran, but that Lebanon was not covered by the agreement, despite Iranian protests.
ABC News’ David Brennan, Meredith Deliso, and Nadine El-Bawab contributed to this report.