The president’s daughter receives backlash for posting a photo of herself holding a can of Goya beans on Twitter
Ivanka Trump, White House adviser and first daughter, decided to use her lofty position on Tuesday to promote Goya beans. Predictably, memes and jokes followed.
To be clear it's not all funny: The photo, using Goya's own tagline, almost certainly violated federal ethics regulations. A federal official like Trump, who is an advisor to the president, isn't supposed to use their position to promote a product.
If you're wondering why in the hell Trump would promote beans, well, basically it's because the company's CEO, Robert Unanue, is a big supporter of her father.
"We're all truly blessed at the same time to have a leader like President Trump, who is a builder," Unanue said at a White House event on Thursday.
Lots of folks were quick to say they'd no longer support the Hispanic food brand since its chief backed Trump. Thus, we got Ivanka promoting beans like Vanna White.
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
The White House, meanwhile, defended the bean tweet on Wednesday, claiming the backlash was "cancel culture."
White House stands behind Ivanka's beans tweet pic.twitter.com/MTMfKMfF5e— Ben Gittleson (@bgittleson) July 15, 2020
As you might imagine after taking one look at that photo, people went absolutely nuts making memes of Trump holding beans. The View co-host talking here.
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg asked: "Isn't this, like, a violation, an ethics violation, Sunny?"
"Yes. It's a federal ethics violation, just clear-cut, clear and simple. Right?" co-host Sunny Hostin responded.
The president also posted a photo of himself with Goya products atop his desk in the Oval Office.
Hostin added: "It's just shocking that she, as the president's adviser, a position she really shouldn't hold because she is the president's daughter and she is unqualified to hold that position, that she doesn't know better."
She added that the first daughter was "so out-of-step" with the country and didn't live up to people's expectations that she would help "normalize" the Trump White House.
"She's a rule violator, ethical rule violator," Hostin said.
"She's a rule violator, ethical rule violator," Hostin said.
Co-host Meghan McCain called the photo "creepy." "The picture of Ivanka Trump holding it is just creepy, and I think it was a huge misfire on her part because, first of all, who cooks Mexican food or Hispanic food or opens up beans in an all-white outfit? And second of all, why does it look like the movie 'Get Out'?" McCain asked, referring to a movie that deals with the topic of racism.
Alongside a photo of her with a Goya can of black beans, Ivanka Trump tweeted: "If it’s Goya, it has to be good." The tweet came as an apparent sign of solidarity with the company after it faced a boycott over its CEO's decision to express support for the president.
The first daughter's tweet received backlash online, including from Walter Shaub, Jr., who previously served as director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics.
"Ivanka Trump’s posts violated an executive branch ethics regulation prohibiting employees from misusing their official positions to endorse commercial products," he wrote in The Washington Post. "As a pictorial representation of the Trump administration’s war on government ethics, both photos are perfectly clear. They scream 'the rules don’t apply to us,' a central message of the Trump administration from the start."
Trump has defended herself, saying on Wednesday that she has “every right” to publicly express her support. White House chief of staff Mark Meadows also told reporters accompanying the president to Atlanta on Wednesday that he doubted Ivanka Trump would face any repercussions.
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