The youngest son of President Trump is facing a social media firestorm over his new business venture, as critics accuse his yerba mate startup of cultural appropriation while his father’s administration ramps up deportations of Latino immigrants.
Barron Trump, 20, serves as a director of SOLLOS Yerba Mate Inc., a Florida-based beverage company targeting the energy drink market with a May 2026 launch. But the company’s Instagram page has been flooded with critical comments from users who see a stark contradiction in a Trump family member profiting from a deeply rooted Indigenous South American tradition while the White House pursues aggressive immigration enforcement against Latino communities.
Yerba mate is a caffeinated herbal tea native to South America with deep ties to Indigenous Guaraní and Paraguayan culture, consumed on the continent for centuries before its recent rise in popularity in the U.S. as an alternative to coffee. The commercial use of this culturally significant product by a member of the Trump family has ignited accusations of commodifying a tradition tied to the very communities targeted by current administration policies.
“Oh wow, a family tied to anti-Latino rhetoric profiting off something deeply rooted in Indigenous (Guaraní), Paraguayan, and South American culture. Yeah… no!” one Instagram commenter wrote.
Another user stated: “Nice cultural appropriation…They don’t want Latinos in the U.S. but they want their products. Buy yerba from Latin American countries and do this beverage the natural way!”
The backlash has extended beyond Instagram. On Reddit’s r/yerbamate forum — the core community the brand needs to win over, reaction has been equally caustic. “I have yet to have a taste, but already have a bad taste in my mouth,” one user wrote. Another added: “The gringos don’t understand anything from outside their country. They want to corrupt everything into a fast food model, without understanding the essence of anything.”
The pile-on has intensified as the launch date nears, with some commenters joking that given the administration’s stance, the brand “should be called ICE or WHITE.”
The brand name itself has become a lightning rod. “Sollos” derives from the Spanish word “sol,” meaning sun. In its marketing materials, the company explains that “SOL” represents sunrise, while “LOS” — “SOL” spelled backwards — represents sunset, describing the full cycle of the sun with the tagline “It Begins Where It Ends.”
State business filings and Securities and Exchange Commission documents dated Jan. 23 show that Sollos Yerba Mate was incorporated in Delaware last December and subsequently registered in Florida. The company has raised $1 million through a private placement and lists at least five partners, including Barron Trump, Spencer Bernstein, Rudolfo Castello, Stephen Hall and Valentino Gomez. Bernstein serves as chief operating officer, while Hall holds the vice president title.
Bernstein and Hall are high school friends of Barron from their days together at Oxbridge Academy in West Palm Beach. Both paused their studies at Villanova University and the University of Notre Dame, respectively, to focus on the venture with what they described on LinkedIn as “a few close friends.” Barron, meanwhile, is in his second year at New York University’s Stern School of Business — a signal that the youngest Trump son intends to follow the family’s business trajectory rather than its political one.
The company operates from a 4,500-square-foot Palm Beach property located less than a mile from President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. The property is owned by Jay Weitzman, a longtime associate, campaign donor, and former tennis partner of President Trump, whose parking business has held federal contracts since 2005. Weitzman told Newsweek he holds no ownership stake in or affiliation with Sollos, clarifying that the company is registered at his address only because his grandson, Bernstein, lives with him.
In mid-April, the brand revealed its debut flavor, a single pineapple-and-coconut blend, in a LinkedIn post announcing a 12-pack available for purchase online at sollos.com. The company has no plans to expand beyond that single recipe. “We didn’t set out to make a flavor lineup; we set out to make the perfect drink,” Sollos told Newsweek. “Most brands launch with five flavors, hoping you’ll like one of them. We spent all of our time, energy, and resources obsessing over a single recipe until it was flawless.” Promotional videos show light blue cans featuring “SOLLOS” in bold lettering over an orange-and-yellow sun graphic rolling through production lines. The launch was originally planned for April 2026 before being pushed to May.
On LinkedIn, the brand positions itself as capturing “the vibrant lifestyle of South Florida” and “the perfect summer drink.” In a statement on its page, the founders wrote that growing up in South Florida shaped their outdoor-oriented lifestyle and inspired the creation of a beverage “designed to complement life in the ‘Sunshine State.'”
The timing could hardly be worse for a product launch, but the financial opportunity appears significant. The global energy drink market was valued at approximately $85 billion to $90 billion in 2025 and is projected to grow to more than $125 billion to $157 billion by the early 2030s, depending on the estimate. Yerba mate, marketed as a natural caffeinated alternative to coffee, has become one of the segment’s fastest-growing categories in the U.S.
For Barron Trump, Sollos represents his latest business move. He is listed as a co-founder of World Liberty Financial alongside his father and older brothers Don Jr. and Eric, a cryptocurrency venture with a stake Forbes has estimated at roughly $150 million, though much of that value remains locked in illiquid tokens. He also briefly co-founded a real estate firm in 2024 that was dissolved after his father’s election victory.
Whether that sun-drenched branding can survive the political headwinds remains to be seen. With the May launch approaching, Sollos has not publicly responded to the mounting criticism, and the brand’s Instagram page continues to attract a steady stream of pointed comments. For a startup hoping to ride the yerba mate wave to mainstream success, the cultural tensions exposed before a single can has hit shelves may prove harder to navigate than any supply chain.
