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The ABC libel settlement with Donald Trump, which has emboldened the president-elect in his crusade against media he dislikes and outraged journalists across the industry, was reportedly a decision made by one man: Bob Iger , the formidable CEO of Walt Disney companies.

According to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, ABC’s rank and file are angry about the settlement, which was recommended by the general counsel of the network’s parent company and approved by Iger. (According to the Times’ Brooks Barnes, it was not brought to the board for a vote.)

There’s a lot we don’t know about what led to Iger’s decision. The view from the cheap seats was that while the case seemed extremely winnable, Disney (which did not respond to CNN’s request for comment) may have been trying to avoid statements that would have led to some embarrassing internal communications.

But for Disney to so willingly withdraw from a battle over free speech before Trump is even in the White House? It suggests that anyone hoping for some kind of resistance led by corporate America can breathe a sigh of relief. Few companies are as well positioned as Disney—with its Jedi-level brand power and a veritable army of the best lawyers money can buy—to withstand such a fight.

Tech and media CEOs have been practically tripping over each other to make the pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago since Trump was re-elected last month. Since Thanksgiving, Trump has met Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, Sundar Pichai of Google, Tim Cook of Apple, Ted Sarandos of Netflix, Shou Chew of TikTok and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, among others. Some of those executives also donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund for security reasons.

“Everyone fought me in the first term,” Trump said at a news conference this week. “Everyone wants to be my friend this semester.”

“Friend” might be a bit of an exaggeration, but call it whatever you want. The reality is that no one wants to risk angering Trump, who in the past has managed to destroy a company’s stock with a single tweet.

Iger, like any manager with a fiduciary duty to shareholders, takes no risks. His contract expires in less than two years and he has a long list of problems to address before Trump’s election victory. (Like figuring out the future of streaming, making Marvel and Lucasfilm great again, and installing a successor to take the reins of one of the largest media companies in the world. No pressure!)

Still, it’s silly to claim that Iger and Disney are somehow immune to the Trump effect. Iger certainly isn’t flying to Palm Beach to dine with the new president like his CEO colleagues. And no, he is not making large donations to the inauguration fund.

There are other ways to get insurance in the Trump era. Like, perhaps, getting ABC to reach an agreement that would provide $15 million for the president-elect’s future presidential museum.

Coincidentally, the ABC agreement came just days before The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Disney had cut a transgender storyline from its new Pixar series “Win or Lose.” When CNN’s Liam Reilly asked Disney whether this decision could be interpreted as the company distancing itself from diversity initiatives in anticipation of a second Trump administration, the company declined to comment.

According to a person familiar with the matter, Liam also notes that the trans character will remain in the series, adding that the decision to remove the plot point was made a few months ago.

Conclusion: Iger won’t kiss the ring quite as blatantly as some of his colleagues. But he seems to be betting that the media empire he helped build over the past two decades can survive the next four years only if it carefully follows the path of least resistance.