Why the Trump family is promoting a bean brand
The food brand Goya, the target of boycott calls since its CEO's strong support for Donald Trump, has counted on the support of the Trump family.
The image delighted Internet users mastering Photoshop: Ivanka Trump holding in her hand a tin can, advertising black beans. "If it's Goya, it's good," she wrote in English and Spanish. The daughter and advisor of the American president thus defended the Goya brand, specializing in Hispanic cuisine products, the target of calls for boycott since its CEO Robert Unanue praised Donald Trump during a event at the White House last week.
If it’s Goya, it has to be good.
— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) July 15, 2020
Si es Goya, tiene que ser bueno. pic.twitter.com/9tjVrfmo9z
Robert Unanue had come to announce the donation of one million cans of chickpeas and one million pounds (over 450,000 kilos) of other foods to food banks to help the most needy. But it is above all his words to designate the American president that marked: “We are truly blessed to have a leader like President Trump who is a builder. And that's what my grandfather did, he came to this country to build, expand, prosper ... and we pray, we pray for our leadership, our president and we pray for our country, ”said the grandson of the brand's founder, Don Prudencio Unanue, who emigrated to the United States from Spain with his wife Carolina.
"Americans should think twice before buying their products"
Many internet users, including influential Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who called for concocting her own Adobo, a famous blend of the brand's spices, have called for a boycott of the brand. “Goya Foods has been a staple for so many Latino households for generations. Now their CEO Bob Unanue is praising a president who viciously attacks Latinos over a political issue. Americans should think twice before buying their products, ”tweeted Julian Castro, former housing secretary in the Obama administration. As early as 2015, when announcing his candidacy for the presidential election, Donald Trump had indeed made shocking remarks towards Mexicans, promising in the wake of the construction of the famous wall between the two countries: "When Mexico sends its people, they do not not send us the best. They send those who have a lot of problems, and they take those problems with them. They're taking drugs. They take crime away. They are rapists. And some, I think, are good people. ”
Robert Unanue saw in these boycott calls a “suppression of freedom of speech”, maintaining his compliments to Donald Trump despite the controversy: “So you have the right to say good things or to praise a president, but not to help economic and educational prosperity? Are you making a positive comment and all of a sudden it's not acceptable? ”He said, recalling that he had gone to the White House at the invitation of Barack Obama. a few years ago.
Illegal advertising? "Personal support for a business", responds the White House
The American president's clan saw these boycott calls as a way to cry censorship and criticize Democrats. Hence the photo of Ivanka Trump, followed by one posted by her father, thumbs up in front of Goya products, and by a reference in a video by Donald Trump Jr, praising the "great" meal cooked with "a lot of Goya products ”by his partner Kimberly Guilfoyle. “Goya Foods works GREAT. The Radical Left's defamation machine has turned against it, people are buying like never before! ”The American president even wrote on Twitter. The subject is important because the vote of the Latin American community will be crucial for the presidential election next November.
However, these calls to consume Goya products to support the pro-Trump CEO could be illegal. "An employee should not use their public office for their own private benefit, for the support of any product, service or business, or for the benefit of friends, family or people with whom the employee is related in a non-governmental way, including non-profit organizations of which the employee is a member, ”enacts the Code of Federal Regulations. An official text that a White House spokeswoman Carolina Hurley swept aside: "Only the media and the cancellation culture movement criticize Ivanka for showing her personal support to a company that has been unfairly mocked, boycotted and ridiculed for having supported this administration - which has constantly fought and produced results for the Hispanic community, ”she said, without mentioning the multiple attacks by president towards Mexicans, the South American refugee caravans or his desire to end the DACA program, which grants American citizenship to children born abroad but who have grown up and lived all their lives in the United States. The Supreme Court last month ruled "capricious" and "arbitrary" the attempt to suppress this initiative, which protected from deportation more than 700,000 people who had arrived illegally in their childhood.
