Barron Trump accused of appropriating Latin culture with in new business scheme

Martha Ross, The Mercury News on Apr 26, 2026

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While some Americans wish Barron Trump would enlist in the military to help fight President Trump’s war in the Middle East, the 20-year-old college student appears more interested in following his father’s lead in another way — by becoming a business mogul.

However, Barron Trump’s follow-up to making millions investing in cryptocurrency, is facing mixed reactions, including pretty scathing criticism that’s related to the Trump administration’s hard-line policies on immigration and efforts to deport people of Latin descent, the Daily Beast reported.

Barron Trump and some high school friends from Palm Beach, Florida, are trying to get into the yerba mate business, launching a beverage company in May that sells hip, new canned versions of the herbal tea-like beverage that has been widely consumed in South America for centuries, the Daily Beast, New York Post and The Cut also reported.

But the company’s Instagram page was filled with complaints, alleging that a member of the Trump family was trying to profit off a form of cultural appropriation. The brand’s name, Sollos Yerba Mate, also has come under fire because it is drawn from “sol,” the Spanish word for sun.

“Nice cultural appropriation,” one person said, referring to Barron Trump’s family and his father’s MAGA followers. “They don’t want Latins in the US but they want their products.”

“Oh wow, a family tied to anti-Latino rhetoric profiting off something deeply rooted in Indigenous (Guaraní), Paraguayan, and South American culture,” another person said. “Yerba mate carries real history and survival, and shouldn’t be sold by the son of the man who loathes Latinos.”

“They hate immigrants but love to steal their product ideas to create a business,” a third person said, while a fourth remarked: “Crazy how they use a herb grown in Latinamerica and a drink made by latinamerican tribes while simultaneously targeting and discriminating latinamericans.”

As this person said, yerba mate is a caffeinated drink with indigenous origins and is especially popular in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, an Arizona State University article said. It is brewed from the leaves of a native species a tree that can be found in the forests of South America. Canned and bottled versions of the drink are increasingly available in U.S. grocery store aisles where energy drinks also are sold.

In a LinkedIn post from March, Sollos Mate Yerba explained that its name was indeed inspired by the Spanish word for “sun.” It also said its drinks — some infused with the flavors of coconut and pineapple — were designed “to complement life in the Sunshine State.” The brand was inspired by the founders’ experience of growing up in South Florida, where the lifestyle is shaped “by the opportunity to spend time outdoors “year-round.”

The business was incorporated in Florida last December and is headquartered at a 4,500-square-foot property in Palm Beach, where Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate is also located, the Daily Beast reported. Barron is one of five people listed as directors. Two directors, Stephen Hall and Spencer Bernstein, are his friends from Oxbridge Academy in West Palm Beach, the New York Post added. The other two directors are Rodolfo Castello and Valentino Gomez and they don’t appear to have an internet presence, The Cut reported.

Thus far, Sollos Yerba Mate has raised $1 million from private investors, the Post also reported, citing a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

On its Instagram page, some people said they couldn’t wait to try Sollos Yerba Mate drinks — “I’m so excited! Will Sollos be in grocery stores?” — while others used the comments section to debate U.S. immigration policies. One person blasted people living in liberal “echo chambers” and said: “The American people don’t hate immigrants. We hate illegals.”

Others defended Barron Trump for being so entrepreneurial at such a young age, though another lamented: “I hope Barron doesn’t hate Latinos.” And, another said said they would prefer not to use a product associated with the Trump family: “The official drink of MAGA Frat Bois the world over … I’ll pass.”

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