Barron Trump’s foray into the booming beverage industry has hit a wall of online outrage, as his upcoming yerba mate brand Sollos faces a storm of cultural appropriation accusations weeks before its May launch. The 20-year-old first son, listed as a director of SOLLOS Yerba Mate Inc., is discovering that selling a drink steeped in Indigenous South American tradition while his father’s administration pursues aggressive immigration policies is proving to be a volatile marketing cocktail.
The company’s Instagram page has been flooded with critical comments after teasing the upcoming product, with users zeroing in on what they see as a glaring contradiction: a member of the Trump family profiting from a Latin American cultural staple while President Trump’s White House escalates deportation efforts targeting Latino communities.
A Brand Born in Palm Beach
Sollos Yerba Mate was incorporated in Delaware last December and subsequently registered in Florida, according to state business filings and SEC documents dated January 23. The company, headquartered less than a mile from President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, 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 chairman and 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, observers say, that the youngest Trump son intends to follow the family’s business trajectory rather than its political one.
In mid-April, the brand revealed its debut flavor — a single pineapple-and-coconut blend — in a LinkedIn post announcing a 12-pack that will be available for purchase online at sollos.com. 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 before being pushed to May.
Cultural Appropriation Backlash Erupts
The brand name itself has become a lightning rod. “Sollos” is derived from the Spanish word “sol,” meaning sun. In marketing materials, the company explains that “SOL” represents sunrise while “LOS” — “SOL” spelled backwards — represents sunset, capturing what the brand calls the full cycle of the sun with the tagline “It Begins Where It Ends.”
But critics aren’t buying the poetic branding. 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. Commenters on the brand’s Instagram page have accused the Trump family of commodifying a product whose roots are in communities the administration has targeted.
“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!” one Instagram user wrote.
Another pointed specifically at the cultural weight of the drink: “Oh wow, a family tied to anti-Latino rhetoric profiting off something deeply rooted in Indigenous (Guaraní), Paraguayan, and South American culture. Yeah… no!”
Other commenters have echoed similar themes, with some joking that given the administration’s stance, the brand “should be called ICE or WHITE.” The pile-on has intensified as the launch date approaches.
A Lucrative Market at Stake
Despite the backlash, the business fundamentals look enticing. The global energy drink market was valued at approximately $85 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.
South Florida Branding Meets Political Reality
The company has leaned hard into its South Florida identity in its messaging. 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.'”
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 fault lines exposed before the first can has hit shelves may prove harder to navigate than any supply chain.