WASHINGTON – Make American Coke Great Again?
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump claimed that he persuaded Coca-Cola to switch to real cane sugar for their main soft drink in the U.S. While Trump made this announcement, the company itself has not officially confirmed such plans.
If Coca-Cola were to replace high-fructose corn syrup with cane sugar in its U.S. formula, it would bring the product more in line with the ingredients used in countries like Mexico and Australia. However, this change would not impact Trump’s preferred beverage, Diet Coke, which contains aspartame, a sugar substitute.
Trump shared on social media, “I have been in talks with Coca-Cola about incorporating REAL Cane Sugar into Coke in the United States, and they have agreed. Many thanks to the decision-makers at Coca-Cola. This step will be highly beneficial—just wait and see. It’s simply superior!”
A spokesperson for Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Co. said in a statement that the company appreciated Trump’s enthusiasm and promised that more details on new offerings within its products would be shared soon.
Coca-Cola didn’t elaborate. But the company has long indulged U.S. fans of cane sugar by importing glass bottles of Mexican Coke to the U.S. since 2005.
Returning to sugar in U.S. production, meanwhile, might affect the nation’s corn farmers, whose yields are used in artificial sweeteners.
“Replacing high fructose corn syrup with cane sugar doesn’t make sense,” Corn Refiners Association President and CEO John Bode said in a statement. “President Trump stands for American manufacturing jobs, American farmers, and reducing the trade deficit. Replacing high fructose corn syrup with cane sugar would cost thousands of American food manufacturing jobs, depress farm income, and boost imports of foreign sugar, all with no nutritional benefit.”
Trump himself is such a fan of Diet Coke that that he had a red button installed on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office that he can press to have a White House butler bring one in for him.
Despite his fondness for Diet Coke, his relationship with the company hasn’t always been sweet.
In a series of posts in 2012, Trump suggested diet soda might be connected to weight gain before eventually writing, “The Coca Cola company is not happy with me — that’s okay, I’ll still keep drinking that garbage.”
A bottle of Diet Coke could be seen sitting next to his chair years later, at a G20 summit in 2017. And The New York Times reported in 2018 that he was drinking a dozen Diet Cokes daily.
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Associated Press writer Dee-Ann Durbin in Detroit and Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, contributed to this story.
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