Comedian Nate Bargatze recently mentioned some of the failures of people currently running Disney.

The 46-year-old standup artist, who has become popular in recent years for telling clean jokes that are also hilarious, said that Walt Disney is one of his biggest influences, emphasizing that the entrepreneur cared about his audience (other names on the list included Jerry Seinfeld, Judd Apatow, and Adam Sandler). But he said CEO Bob Iger isn’t doing the best job of carrying on Disney’s legacy.

“Now Disney is run by a guy that’s just a businessman,” he told Esquire in a new cover interview, seemingly referring to Iger. “Well, that guy doesn’t care about the audience.”

He then referenced his own fans and how much he owes them, saying, “None of this happens without them.”

The article goes into detail about how Bargatze is currently the most successful comedian in the world, outselling Seinfeld, Dave Chappelle, and Sebastian Maniscalco combined last year. What makes his story even more incredible is that his comedy doesn’t include swearing, sex, drugs, or politics. 

Bargatze talked about some of his fellow comedians who garnered attention for saying controversial things and how he attempted to avoid that path. 

“They would skip a bunch of steps,” he said of his contemporaries. “Now they’re mentioned everywhere because they said something crazy. Now Netflix called them and they got a special.” 

“The hardest thing to do is to stay that path because it’s not as flashy,” Bargatze told the outlet. “You got to just sit in it. You got to slowly keep going. Then you get to the point where I’m at now. I’m frustrated by an entire system that’s like, ‘Y’all were just grabbing headlines,’ when I felt like, ‘Why did y’all not look at me more?’”

The comedian also hinted at plans for ending his standup career and working on entertainment projects with broad appeal, plus opening a theme park in Tennessee called Nateland. “I don’t think anybody’s even trying to make stuff for everybody,” he said.

Meanwhile, Disney has not been doing well lately with several high-profile flops in recent years, including the latest disaster, “Snow White.” The film is expected to lose up to $100 million after being plagued by controversies with both the lead stars and the content of the movie itself. 

Iger was formerly the CEO of Disney from 2005 until 2020. He was replaced by Bob Chapek and then reinstated to his position in November 2022 when Chapek was fired. In November 2023, Iger said the studio was too focused on sequels.

Last May, the Disney exec promised the company would pivot from focusing on quantity to quality, reducing the studio’s output of sequels and television spinoffs overall.

Vice President JD Vance said on Wednesday that the Trump administration thinks Russia is pushing for “too much” in the peace talks with Ukraine.

Vance spoke at a Munich Security Conference Q&A, where he addressed numerous foreign policy issues, including the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine and the effort to negotiate a peace deal between the two countries. The vice president said that to end the war, President Donald Trump has been trying “to understand where the other side is coming from.” As peace talks have hit multiple roadblocks in Trump’s first 100 days in office, Vance said he isn’t giving up hope that the two countries can come to some sort of agreement.

“I wouldn’t say that the Russians are uninterested in bringing this thing to a resolution. What I would say is right now, the Russians are asking for a certain set of requirements, a certain set of concessions in order to end the conflict. We think they’re asking for too much,” the vice president said.

JD Vance says Russia is "asking for too much" in peace talks with Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/zyIIsW61Ta

— Zach Jewell (@zach_d_jewell) May 7, 2025

The Trump administration is hoping to take a step back from mediating negotiations.

“We would like both the Russians and the Ukrainians to actually agree on some basic guidelines for sitting down and talking to one another,” Vance continued. “Obviously, the United States is happy to participate in those conversations, but it’s very important for the Russians and Ukrainians to start talking to one another.”

“We think it’s probably impossible for us to mediate this entirely without at least some direct negotiation between the two, and so that’s what we focus on,” Vance added.

The Trump administration has been talking to both Russian and Ukrainian leaders for months, seeking a way to end the war. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff recently spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow for the third time. Some of Russia’s demands include ensuring that Ukraine will never be admitted into NATO and the recognition of its occupation of Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula it invaded and annexed in 2014. Ukraine, meanwhile, continues to push for NATO membership, a request Trump said in February that Ukraine should “forget about.”

Vance said that the Trump administration has “moved beyond” pushing for a 30-day ceasefire after those talks went nowhere with Russia.

“We’ve tried to move beyond the obsession with a 30-day ceasefire and more on what the long-term settlement would look like,” he said. “And we’ve tried to consistently advance the ball.”

The United States took a major step forward in talks with Ukraine last week, signing a minerals agreement with Kyiv. The agreement provides Ukraine with continued military assistance in exchange for the United States getting access to some of Ukraine’s vital natural resources, including aluminum, graphite, oil, and natural gas.

Russia blasted the minerals deal shortly after it was made, mocking President Trump and saying that Ukraine “is about to disappear.”