Ivanka, the daughter of President Trump, posted on Twitter in support of Goya Foods following calls to boycott the company after its CEO praised the US president.
According to CNN Business, Goya CEO Robert Unanue had spoken at the White House Rose Garden last Thursday as part of President Trump’s Hispanic Prosperity Initiative, announcing that Goya would donate 1 million cans of Goya chickpeas and 1 million other food products to American food banks.
During the remarks, Unanue said "We are all truly blessed [...] to have a leader like President Trump who is a builder.”
"We have an incredible builder, and we pray. We pray for our leadership, our president."
The remarks of praise for Trump elicited calls on social media to boycott Goya. The hashtag #Goyaway was trending on social media Friday, according to CNN Business.
In response, Ivanka Trump tweeted a picture of herself holding a can of Goya beans with the words, “If it’s Goya, it has to be good. Si es Goya, tiene que ser bueno.”
Unanue himself refused to apologize for his remarks, slamming the calls for boycott as "suppression of speech." He noted how he had also accepted an invitation from Michelle Obama in 2012 to promote her healthy-eating initiative but did not meet the same condemnation then.
"You're allowed to talk good or talk praise to one president but you're not - when I was called to be part of this commission to aid in economic and educational prosperity and you make a positive comment, all the sudden that's not acceptable," Unanue told Fox News. "If you're called by the president of the United States, you're going to say, 'No I'm sorry, I'm busy, no thank you?' I didn't say that to the Obamas and I didn't say that to President Trump."
Goya, based in Secaucus, New Jersey, was founded in 1936 by Unanue's grandfather, who immigrated from Spain, and remains family-owned.