Today Donald Trump wrote something on Truth Social that seemed ridiculous:
“I have been speaking to Coca-Cola about using REAL Cane Sugar in Coke in the United States, and they have agreed to do so,” he wrote, “I’d like to thank all of those in authority at Coca-Cola. This will be a very good move by them — You’ll see. It’s just better!”
Why would Coca Cola drop their fructose syrup in favor of cane. Simple: One of Trump’s biggest Republican donors owns all the cane sugar in Florida, and then some.
Jose “Pepe” Fanjul owns the Florida Crystals Corporation. Fanjul, who’s Cuban by birth and spends a lot of time at an estate in the Dominican Republic, runs his family’s empire. is the second eldest of the Fanjul brothers, who control a sugar and real estate business valued at $8.2 billion.
Fanjul is the vice chairman and president of Flo-Sun, a Fanjul family-owned sugar growing and refining company, and of Florida Crystals, according to Wikipedia.
According to Google AI: “[The Fanjuls] own and farm over 190,000 acres of land, including two sugar mills, a sugar refinery, a rice mill, and a packaging and distribution center. Florida Crystals also operates the largest biomass renewable power plant in North America. Additionally, they are the only producer of certified organic sugar grown and milled in the U.S. and the largest Regenerative Organic Certified farm in the country.”
The Fanjuls have contributed millions upon millions to Trump and all Republican candidates. If I had the time or a staff to add up all the donations listed on OpenSecrets.org we could give you a total and you’d fall over while reading this article. There are so many pages that finally one reads “Maximum Limit 500.”
OpenSecrets calculates an average of $1.1 million a year by the Fanjul Corporation for lobbying. They say Fanjul Corp’s 2024 donations came to $2.9 milliion. About 99% of the donations were to Republicans. There was also a $1 million donate to Make America Great Again.
Here’s a link to the pages and pages of Republican donations.
The largest single donation was to the WinRed PAC in 2020 for $85,000.
Everyone in New York — meaning the Upper East Side — knows the Fanjuls. They are fun, social people who split their time between the city, Palm Beach, and the DR. Trump has known them a long time. So the idea that Trump is now arm twisting soda companies to use cane sugar is no surprise — except to the 99% of people who don’t know the background.
And you thought Trump was gulping Coke for his health!
There’s plenty more to read. Click here.
