Trump campaign blends Goya controversy and socialism into anti-Biden TV ad in Miami

From the Oval Office to the South Florida airwaves, Trump is delivering the Goya culture wars to a TV set near you.

President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign is releasing a Spanish-language political ad in the Miami media market that — with narration by Cuban actress Susana Pérez — blends the political controversy enveloping Goya Foods with imagery and soundbites that cast presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden as an “extreme” socialist akin to Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro.

The ad, scheduled to run Wednesday, seeks to capitalize on calls this month from the left to boycott Goya Foods after CEO Robert Unanue said during a White House press conference that the U.S. is “blessed” to have Trump as president — setting off a counter-reaction that sent Trump supporters rushing to fill their pantries with the brand’s canned beans and boxed seasonings.

The ad features progressive New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a regular foil for conservatives, who was among the first figures to call for a Goya boycott. It also includes a 2015 image of Biden with Venezuela ruler Maduro in Brazil, and a red flag with an image of Che Guevara, the communist Cuban revolutionary.

In an attempt to label the Goya boycott as hypocritical, it also includes an image of Michelle Obama standing in front of Goya products during a New Jersey event in 2013, back when the former first lady was partnering with the company while promoting healthy living.

“We sacrificed a lot to be free and respected, and now, the left has launched an act of repudiation against Goya, the brand we love, just because Goya is working with President Trump,” Pérez says in the ad. “The Democrats and Joe Biden are too extreme. Socialism. Cutting police funding. Getting rid of charter schools. And Joe Biden is too weak to defend us.”

Pérez, 68, is well-known in Cuba and in South Florida for her past award-winning roles on the island’s radio and television shows. She lives in Miami and advertises cosmetic surgeries for the local company My Cosmetic Surgery. She told el Nuevo Herald she was “happy” to help Trump, whom she said she “fully” supports.

The ad — to run in the Miami area along with a radio spot about the Goya controversy — comes as Trump, his campaign and other Republican politicians have been publicly supporting Goya in response to the called-for boycott.

Trump last week shared an image from the Oval Office with Goya cans placed on his desk. His daughter, Ivanka Trump, displayed a can of Goya black beans for a photo she shared on Twitter. Locally, Miami-Dade County Commissioner and mayoral candidate Esteban “Steve” Bovo has shared photos of Goya products and campaign material, and former TV host and congressional candidate Maria Elvira Salazar has filmed herself in a Sedano’s supermarket aisle next to cans of Goya.

Latinos for Trump, the Hispanic outreach arm of the Trump campaign, is also hosting Goya food drives.

Goya, a popular brand in the U.S. for beans, canned goods and seasoning, calls itself the “largest Hispanic-owned food company in the United States.” The brand remains popular in Miami, where Hispanic voters are a key demographic for Trump’s campaign in Florida, a state he likely must win in order to be reelected.

The ads come as Biden increases his spending on TV. His campaign announced plans Tuesday to spend $15 million over the coming week on television, including new Spanish-language ads featuring different narrators native to the markets in which the commercials run.

Miami Herald staff writer Bianca Padró Ocasio contributed to this report.