Donald Trump has shake the media loop again, and this time it has not been with a rally, but with a bottle of Coca-Cola. Literally. The former president announced Wednesday that the multinational accepted its “suggestion” to replace corn syrup with “real cane sugar” in its products in the United States. He told, of course, in Truth Social, his fetish social network, with capital letters included and his usual tone of telepredictor in campaign: “They have agreed to do so. It is simply better!” As if changing a sweetener was a geopolitical victory.
The company, meanwhile, did not denied the movement but played the mistake with a measured response: “We will share details about new proposals soon and we appreciate the enthusiasm of President Trump for our products,” said a Coca-Cola spokesman, who dodged with elegance the political prominence of the announcement. Neither clear confirmation nor a resounding denial. Ambiguity with bubbles.
Actually, change should not surprise so much. While in Europe and other markets sugar is already used as a usual sweetener, in the US, classic coca-cola continues to sweeten with high fructose corn syrup, a cheap and omnipresent ingredient in the US food industry. The decision to make the leap to cane sugar in American territory, if it materializes, would imply reopening an old lobbies war between Midwest’s corn producers and Florida cane growers. Coincidentally, the state of Trump himself.
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Between health, industry and posture
The change does not occur in a vacuum. It is part of the “Make America Healthy Again” plan (Maha), that kind of nutritional crusade with the marketing campaign name that Trump promotes with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. under the pretext of cleaning the US diet. The Maha Commission, a mixture of Cabinet and Fans Club, warns in a May report that corn syrup is related to childhood obesity and other ailments. Of course, medical experts do not get so dramatic: they recommend limiting added sugar, come from where it comes from, without pointing out large differences between corn syrup and cane sugar.
But where Trump sees a master play, others see a nonsense. “It makes no sense,” John Bode, president of the CORN Refiners Association, which fears a direct blow to thousands of jobs in the agri -food sector and an increase in products. The threat of importing sugar abroad does not precisely grace in full climate of economic protectionism. Not to mention what the most vulnerable families would mean for state aids if, as the White House has already authorized in some states, the soda of the list of products accepted in the SNAP program (the equivalent of the food subsidy) begins to exclude.
In the absence of official response by the White House communication team, the only thing that has been shared is a propaganda image in X: Trump, High fists, red background, Coca-Cola bottle with its printed last name and the slogan “Take a Coca-Cola with Trump.” It is not known if the message is an invitation or a threat. What is clear is that, by Trump’s work and grace, the next time someone takes a Coca-Cola in the US, he will do it with a new flavor and an old debate: how much sugar can a drink have while still being a policy?
