Beans means trouble for the Trumps
President backs daughter after claims she violated ethics rules in promoting Hispanic-owned company
THE White House has defended Ivanka Trump after the US president’s daughter became embroiled in an ethics row over her endorsement of Goya Foods, saying she had “every right” to publicly support the Hispanic-owned company.
Ms Trump, a senior adviser to her father, provoked controversy when she tweeted a photo of herself holding a can of Goya beans to promote the brand.
Mr Trump backed up his daughter by posing himself with a range of Goya products, giving the thumbs up at his desk in the Oval office. However, as president, he is exempt from many of the rules other government staff are required to follow.
Goya became the target of a consumer boycott after its chief executive Robert Unanue praised Mr Trump at a Hispanic event at the White House last Thursday.
The brand’s largely Hispanic customer base said Mr Unanue appeared to have overlooked what they called Mr Trump’s history of making “racist” comments about Latin American immigrants. Following celebrities’ calls for shoppers to boycott the brand the president tweeted about his “love” for Goya, and his daughter followed up on Tuesday night by sharing a photo online of herself holding a can of black beans with a caption that read, “If it’s Goya, it has to be good,” in English and Spanish. Critics pointed out that as a White House staffer, Ms Trump is required to follow ethics rules that bar government officials from using their public office to endorse specific products or groups. The White House hit back yesterday. Spokeswoman Carolina Hurley said: “Only the media and the cancel culture movement would criticise Ivanka for showing her personal support for a company that has been unfairly mocked, boycotted and ridiculed for supporting this administration, one that has consistently fought for and delivered for the Hispanic community”. Ms Hurley added: “Ivanka is proud of this strong, Hispanic-owned business with deep roots in the US and has every right to express her personal support”.
While Ms Trump posted the message from her personal Twitter page, she also uses the account to share her work on various White House initiatives.
Walter Shaub, former director of the Office of Government Ethics, said the posts by Ms Trump and her father amounted to “an official campaign by the Trump administration to support Goya”, adding that it made it “all the more clear that Ivanka’s tweet was a violation of the misuse of position regulations.”
Noah Bookbinder, from CREW, a Washington-based government ethics organisation, said the post was a clear violation of rules for government employees.
“It’s pretty clear that the context in which this came out is that Goya had been supportive of the Trump administration and the Trump administration was being supportive of Goya,” Mr Bookbinder said.
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