President Donald Trump pressed Coca-Cola to use real cane sugar in its flagship soft drink and the once-mum soda maker is now confirming plans to do just as directed.
Days after Trump revealed the move at his pressure, Coca-Cola confirmed Tuesday it plans to offer a cane sugar version in U.S.
"As part of its ongoing innovation agenda, this fall in the United States, the company plans to launch an offering made with U.S. cane sugar to expand its Trademark Coca-Cola product range," the company announced in its second-quarter earnings and future guidance Tuesday morning.
"This addition is designed to complement the company's strong core portfolio and offer more choices across occasions and preferences."
But that statement fails to credit Trump, an avid diet coke consumer who pressed the soda company to level up with other countries offering pure cane sugar colas in addition to its high-fructose corn syrup sold in the United States.
It puts Coca-Cola more in line with its practice in other countries, including Mexico and Australia. But it would not affect Trump's drink of choice, Diet Coke, which uses aspartame as a calorie-free beverage.
"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," Trump wrote on his social media site earlier this month. "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!"
A spokesperson for Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Co. said in a statement that the company appreciated Trump's enthusiasm and had promised that more details on new offerings within its products would be shared soon.
Coca-Cola 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 natural 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 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 has not 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 OK, 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.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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