Goya Foods Faces Major Backlash after CEO Praises Trump

The hashtag #Goyaway was trending on social media Friday after Robert Unanue, CEO of Goya Foods, appeared in the White House Rose Garden Thursday afternoon and praised President Donald Trump.

"We are all truly blessed ... to have a leader like President Trump who is a builder," Unanue said during the Rose Garden speech. "We have an incredible builder, and we pray. We pray for our leadership, our president."

The fact that Unanue would associate with Trump was sufficient to anger some of America's most prominent Hispanic leaders. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez suggested in a tweet that she'd boycott Goya.

Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro acknowledged Goya's "staple" status in Latino households, but he encouraged people to reconsider buying Goya after Unanue's White House appearance.

President Trump is unpopular among Hispanic Americans. Hispanics favor Vice President Joe Biden over Trump in the race for president by a 36 percentage-point margin, according to the latest New York Times/Siena College poll. Trump began his campaign by criticizing Mexican immigrants for being "rapists" and bringing drugs into the United States. He has spent much of his presidency trying to build a wall along the southern US border and enacted a policy that separated children from parents when they were apprehended at the border.

Despite the outrage from leftist politicians, not all Hispanic-Americans agree with the outrage.

Goya Foods President and CEO Bob Unanue said on Friday that he is not backing down in the face of a boycott over his visit to the White House.

“We were part of a commission called the White House Hispanic Prosperity Initiative and they called on us to be there to see how we could help opportunities within the economic and educational realm for prosperity among Hispanics and among the United States,” Unanue told "Fox & Friends."

Unanue said that the United States is the second-largest Hispanic country in the world behind Mexico.

Politicians and celebrities are boycotting Goya, the largest Hispanic-owned food company in the country, after its CEO, Robert Unanue, praised President Donald Trump during an event Thursday at the White House.

"We're all truly blessed at the same time to have a leader like President Trump, who is a builder," said Unanue, who is of Spanish descent, at the event.

Trump hosted Hispanic leaders at the White House on Thursday and signed an executive order on the White House Hispanic Prosperity Initiative to use more taxpayer support for private and charter schools and “improve access by Hispanic Americans to education and economic opportunities.”

Good for Unanue for not giving into the outrage mob. 

The moment you apologize to the mob is the moment you lose. 

It's time more people follow Unanue's lead, and fight back against the supression of speech and ideas.