| July 11, 2020 03:01 PM
Ultimate Fighting Championship star Jorge Masvidal offered up support to the Goya Foods company after it was targeted with a boycott following the CEO’s positive words about President Trump.
“Actions of @GoyaFoods speak louder than the #woke mob,” Masvidal tweeted Saturday along with a news article about the company donating millions of pounds of food to Puerto Rican victims of Hurricane Maria. “My people don’t get influenced by those that don’t know. They’ve been helping our people when we needed it most.”
Masvidal, who is of Cuban and Peruvian descent, posted his tweet as Goya Foods, the largest Hispanic-owned food company in the United States, faces a boycott pushed by several prominent Democrats after CEO Robert Unanue complimented the president during a White House event.
“We are all truly blessed … to have a leader like President Trump, who is a builder,” Unanue said during a speech in the Rose Garden as part of the White House’s Hispanic Prosperity Initiative. “We have an incredible builder, and we pray. We pray for our leadership, our president.”
Twitter users then spread the hashtag #Goyaway, aimed at motivating people to refrain from buying the products.
Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, and actor John Leguizamo, former Bill Clinton adviser Robert Reich, and other high-profile figures with large social media followings joined in on the effort.
Unanue refused to back down, saying he would not apologize. He argued that the boycott was a “suppression of speech.”
Masvidal has expressed support for Trump in the past, including just a few days ago when he showed up to the location of his fight scheduled for Saturday night wearing a face mask bearing the president’s name.
“He’s going through a lot getting impeached but no matter your views on him, that’s one bad motherf—–,” Masvidal was quoted as saying. “He’s done a lot of crazy shit that a lot of people wish they could do.”
Masvidal is scheduled to fight Kamaru Usman Saturday night as the main event for UFC 251, which is taking place in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
