Recently, Ivanka Trump, daughter and advisor to Donald Trump, expressed her love for Goya Beans. Moreover, she even got her dad to praise the Hispanic-owned company. But, it looks like she may have violated some ethics rule by endorsing Goya Beans.
Ivanka Trump and her father love Goya Beans
The Trumps did not shy away in showing their love for Goya Beans. In a recent tweet, Ivanka Trump said:
If it’s Goya, it has to be good.
Ivanka also added the Spanish translation of her message, saying:
Si es Goya, tiene que ser bueno.
If it’s Goya, it has to be good.
Si es Goya, tiene que ser bueno. pic.twitter.com/9tjVrfmo9z— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) July 15, 2020
However, this post by Ivanka was not out of the blue. It was done in response to social media outrage and calls for boycotting the brand. This was after the CEO of Goya, Robert Unanae praised Donald Trump last week,
We are all truly blessed … to have a leader like President Trump who is a builder. We have an incredible builder, and we pray.
Moreover, Unanae remained adamant about his remarks. As a result, on Wednesday, President Trump promoted the Hispanic/Latino brand on his Instagram with a picture of himself and the beans on the Resolute Desk:
We’re not sure how the call for boycott impacted Goya, but they have the full support of the Trumps. Donald Trump tweeted as well, saying:
.@GoyaFoods is doing GREAT. The Radical Left smear machine backfired, people are buying like crazy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 15, 2020
However, with such endorsements, it looks like Ivanka Trump and her father might be in violation of an ethics rule.
It might be an ethics rule violation
When you’re the most powerful man in the free world, there is a different set of rules set for you. And the same goes for your advisors and those who work closely with you as well. The same goes for Donald Trump and Ivanka Trump. The United States Office of Government Ethics, which exists to prevent “conflict of interests” in the executive branch, has set guidelines on such endorsements. The guidelines state:
Executive branch employees may not use their Government positions to suggest that the agency or any part of the executive branch endorses an organization (including a nonprofit organization), product, service, or person.
Moreover, the guidelines also declare a set of punishments. And they can be severe, depending upon the employee and the degree of the offense, as they state:
Depending on the circumstances and the legal authority at issue, an executive branch employee may be imprisoned, fined, demoted, or fired for violating an ethics provision.
This does not spell well for Goya Beans, Donald Trump, or Ivanka Trump. But, a spokesman of the White House came and defended the Trumps, saying:
Ivanka is proud of this strong, Hispanic-owned business with deep roots in the US and has every right to express her personal support.
Moreover, the Former director of the Office of Government Ethics Walter Shaub wrote a 12-tweet-long thread on the matter. He clearly wrote how Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump’s endorsement of Goya Beans is a clear violation of the ethics rule stated above.
When it comes to the use of personal social media accounts, the ethics office employs a "totality of the circumstances" approach. The fact that one's title appears among other details in the bio section of an account does not necessarily make an endorsement a violation. But… /1
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) July 15, 2020
Ever since Donald Trump assumed office, not a day goes by that a new scandal emerges. And this one now involves his daughter Ivanka too. But, such ethics violations are a norm in this Trump Presidency.
