Coca-Cola gifts Donald Trump an inaugural Diet Coke bottle years after bashing him
President-elect Donald Trump was gifted a commemorative bottle of his favorite drink, Diet Coke, by Coca-Cola four years after the company criticized him around the Capitol riot.
Trump was pictured flashing a wide smile while holding the bottle and sitting next to Coca-Cola Chairman and CEO James Quincey, who was also grinning.
The president-elect on Tuesday night ‘received the first ever Presidential Commemorative Inaugural Diet Coke bottle’ from Quincey, Trump’s deputy director of communications, Margo Martin, shared on X (formerly Twitter).
Another picture shows a label on the classic glass bottle with an image of the White House, Trump’s name, and January 20, 2025, printed on it.
Trump’s love for Diet Coke has long been apparent with a button he had installed on his Oval Office desk during his first term, to order it whenever he desired. He reportedly drank a dozen Diet Cokes daily during his first year as commander-in-chief.
The gesture signals a reversal from the corporation’s stance on Trump following the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Coca-Cola at the time called the riot ‘an offense to the ideals of American democracy’.
‘With the election results now certified, we have faith in America’s democratic institutions to ensure a peaceful transfer of power and allow the US to move forward together as one nation,’ stated Coca-Cola.
But with Trump’s 2024 election victory and Inauguration Day just days away, Coca-Cola became the latest American company to align itself with the returning president.
Meta has committed to getting rid of its content moderation and censorship mechanisms. Its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has visited Trump twice at his Mar-a-Lago home and given $1million to his inaugural fund.
The box that came with the commemorative bottle states that Coca-Cola was founded 126 years ago in Atlanta and ‘generates $58+ billion in U.S. economic activity annually and supports more than 860,000 jobs in the United States’.
Trump’s embrace of the soft drink appears at odds with his health and human services secretary pick Robert F Kennedy Jr’s mission to ‘Make America Healthy Again’ in part by cracking down on ultra-processed foods.
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