Ivanka Trump is giving the internet golden content for their anti-trump postings by endorsing GOYA beans on Twitter, a company that has been making headlines recently for their political affiliations.
The food brand GOYA is under fire after their CEO, Robert Unanue, praised Trump at a Rose Garden Ceremony saying “we’re all truly blessed to have a leader like President Trump”. GOYA has been a staple in latino households for decades, but customers felt betrayed by Unanue’s political support and this led to a massive boycott of the company. Trump just recently tried to deny this push back, tweeting “GOYA Foods is doing GREAT. The radical Left smear machine backfired, people are buying like crazy”.
It looks like Ivanka is also trying to show support for the brand that backed up her father, but she unintentionally gave the internet ammunition for a new type of anti-trump meme.
On July 14th Ivanka tweeted this picture along with the company’s slogan, “If it’s GOYA, it has to be good”. People online decided to replace the can of beans with some other symbols of her father’s presidency, in ways that Trump probably wouldn’t support. One twitter user tried to warn her of the backlash to come saying “Oh photoshop, twitter is about to wreck you” – and then the memes started flowing.
One user replaced the GOYA label with the number of COVID deaths in the US, as a jab at her father’s lack of leadership during the pandemic. Another made it a soda can of Clorox, referencing Trump’s comments that ingesting cleaning products can kill the COVID infection. One user even edited a custom Nancy Drew novel for the First Daughter, titling it “the Ivanka Trump Mystery stories: The Case of the Narcissist’s Unqualified Daughter”.
More popular edits were Ivanka holding a Joe-Biden-for-President flag with the caption “If he isn’t Trump, he has to be good” – and the original picture in front of an Immigration camp where immigrants are held in cages and prevented from entering the US.
This immigration meme captures the entire reason for the GOYA boycott in the first place – the company mostly caters to latino customers, which is a group Trump is famous for disliking and calling ‘rapists’ and ‘illegals’. People think GOYA supporting Trump means they are ignoring all the damage he has done to their community.
It turns out Ivanka’s may have been more than just offensive, it might have violated federal law and ethics codes. A lot of people were quick to point out it’s unethical for a political figure to endorse a product or brand, and twitter is wondering if this is a paid sponsorship between Ivanka and GOYA. One user said “Why is a senior white house official endorsing a food product?” and another “Ivanka is using her official position paid by taxpayers to advertise a product. Is she getting paid for this by @goyafoods?”
This is pretty of on par with the Trump administration – he comes from a background of TV and entertainment and people have always seen her father as making politics into a reality show … now it just has commercials?
People online are citing specific federal codes that state “an employee shall not use or permit the use of his government position or title or any authority associated with his public office to endorse any product, service or enterprise” and this even got edited into a meme. Twitter users reacted by tagging the Office of the Special Counsel saying “I think you might have a hatch act violation here, signed an annoyed tax payer” and saying to Ivanka “You do know you just violated the law, don’t you? And the next president will be in office in less than a year? And real prosecutor will enforce the law and fire you?”.
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These users have a point, the Trump administration has gotten away with a lot and a lot of ethical violations have been ignored, but if someone new is elected in November is brings fears that the administration will be held accountable.
There were some Trump supporters joining the discussion about this post, mostly trying to prove all politicians have endorsed products during their career. One user tweeted “how did Obama and Hillary make millions while in office again?” and another said he wanted to make visible “all the money the Biden’s made with Barisma, the Clinton’s with books and energy, the Obama’s with their books. While Trump gave up millions to save this country”.
It’s unclear if this is really a universal problem but what do you think – should GOYA be boycotted? Do all politicians endorse products? Was this really unethical? Let us know and also please send us your best Invaka memes to our twitter.
