Trump mercilessly mocked after posing with Goya beans inside the Oval Office
The Battle of the Beans rages on. Last week, the CEO of Goya Foods ignited a firestorm of criticism after he appeared with President Trump in the White House Rose Garden and heaped praise on our disastrous leader, going so far as to make the absurd claim that we are “truly blessed” to “have a leader like President Trump who is a builder.”
Given Trump’s long history of racist rhetoric against people of color, many reasonably interpreted the CEO’s remarks as a gross betrayal since Goya customers often buy their products to create Hispanic cuisine. The company rakes in hundreds of millions of dollars a year, largely by catering to a community for whom their CEO clearly has little respect.
As outrage grew, calls for a boycott sprang up all over the internet and Republicans responded by declaring their allegiance to Goya, a brand which it can safely be presumed few of them had ever even purchased before this news story blew up. Conservatives are eager to turn this into their latest culture war battlefield in the hopes of distracting from how incompetently the GOP-controlled Senate and White House are handling the COVID-19 crisis.
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) was roundly mocked for devoting his attention to the Goya boycott while a deadly pandemic is raging and then First Daughter Ivanka Trump got the same treatment yesterday when she posted a picture of herself with a can of beans (a photo which violated ethics regulations against White House officials endorsing products).
Now, President Trump has thrown himself back into the fray by posting a ludicrous photo of himself in the Oval Office, seated behind the Resolute Desk, posing with Goya foodstuffs and grinning like a fool. The desk upon which historic legislation was signed into law by previous presidents has now been reduced to a glorified infomercial prop.
The social media backlash was swift and brutal.
https://twitter.com/yashar/status/1283464635841048576?s=20
— darth™ (@darth) July 15, 2020
— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) July 15, 2020
Mr President no! pic.twitter.com/RFzvX0T73m
— Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) July 15, 2020
Defend the beans not the soldiers with bounties on their head
— Denise Wu (@denisewu) July 15, 2020
this dude defends statues and beans more than he protect American lives.
— Tzippy Shmilovitz 🤦♀️ (@Tzipshmil) July 15, 2020
https://twitter.com/305Pirate/status/1283466239076073474?s=20
FYI, the Hatch Act doesn't cover the President himself, so he can sell whatever he wants while in office. EVERY president before him avoided it because of respect for the office, but remember, we have a third grader as President now, so what do you expect?
— Voice Without Volume (Duane Gundrum) (@DuaneGundrum) July 15, 2020
You KNOW he’s never in his life consumed any of those products.
— Kate Counter (@KateCounter) July 15, 2020
@GoyaFoods, you’ve alienated your loyal customers – and you know Latinos are brand loyal. Those racist ppl promoting your brand will soon forget about you and move on. They know nothing about Goya because they don’t buy your foods and they sure as hell don’t eat them. Good luck!
— Sarita (@SaritaJacques) July 15, 2020
Well you get the racist CEO vote
— Sandi Bachom (@sandibachom) July 15, 2020
They’ve turned the White House into the Dollar Store
— 𝚔𝚎𝚟𝚒𝚗 (@KevINthe406) July 15, 2020
Think about this….some WH staffer had to go to the grocery store on a totally unnecessary visit during a pandemic to buy food that will never be used in the WH for a freaking photo op.
— This Sloth VOTES✊🏻✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿 (@wiscs8k8) July 15, 2020
Can we not care?! Are there still bounties on our troops? Is there enough covid tests and PPE? Do we have secure voting? Don’t buy the damned brand but this is so clearly about shifting the focus to something that doesn’t matter that I can’t stand it
— molly doesn’t even know where to start (@canineasylum) July 15, 2020
There's a pandemic raging and tens of millions are out of work. The president is grinning like the Cheshire Cat with cans of beens on the resolute desk. Voters are starting to take notes with pen, not pencil.
— Adam Fetcher (@AdamKFetcher) July 15, 2020
Can’t wait for an actual adult to sit behind that desk again.
— Alicia Carlson 💙 🇺🇸 (@AmicaAli) July 15, 2020
I’m old enough to remember when they would at least take the time to put all the ingredients together into a taco bowl they could pretend Donald Trump might eat. Now they just dump the cans and boxes on his desk.
— Ron Hogan (@RonHogan) July 15, 2020
Trump pimpin' Goya on Instagram. pic.twitter.com/w9w0n2AJKd
— Jeffrey Guterman (@JeffreyGuterman) July 15, 2020
This is an official campaign by the Trump administration to support Goya, making it all the more clear that Ivanka's tweet was a violation of the misuse of position regulations.https://t.co/8laRqTntat
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) July 15, 2020
Goya CEO basically bought free advertising from POTUS, didn’t cost him a dime. Just had to say he likes Trump. https://t.co/Xvl3burOWr
— Vaush (@VaushV) July 15, 2020
I’d bet a lot of beans that no one in the Trump family has ever eaten Goya before
— Katie Hill (@KatieHill4CA) July 15, 2020
Was off Twitter for a few, is it true Trump posted a pic of himself snorting Goya Adobo seasoning off of the Resolute Desk? @realDonaldTrump
— NoelCaslerComedy (@CaslerNoel) July 15, 2020
One of my parents' neighbors JUST NOW decided to add a Trump flag to their lawn. Like, what exactly inspired you in recent weeks? Explicit racism? Death as a result of criminal negligence? A shared love of Goya beans?
— Lauren Duca (@laurenduca) July 15, 2020
Trump campaign rally attendees buzzing before the big man takes the stage, expressing hope that he “brings out the beans” (waves a can of Goya beans to applause)
— Patrick Monahan (@pattymo) July 15, 2020
We are going to look back at GOYA week as the thing that turned everything around for the president.
Newt's next book will be titled "Go Ya! The Trump Comeback Story"
— Tim Miller (@Timodc) July 15, 2020
Goya is now married to the Trump brand. I don't think this is a wise long term strategy for the company.
— Wajahat "Wears a Mask Because of a Pandemic" Ali (@WajahatAli) July 15, 2020
Trump and his staff trying in vain to get white people to buy seasoning as a political favor to Goya is actually a pretty good metaphor for the effectiveness of his overall campaign strategy.
— Charlotte Clymer 🏳️🌈 (@cmclymer) July 15, 2020