Why MAGA Wants to Make Mexican Coke in the US
Coca-Cola’s decision to offer its flagship drink with cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup is as much about trade policy as it is about health policy.
Coming soon to supermarkets in the US.
Photographer: Jeoffrey Guillemard/Bloomberg
Coca-Cola is launching a new product in the US this fall featuring cane sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup, and at least one restaurant chain is planning to offer sugar Coke as soon as next week. This news prompted Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to post his reaction online: “MAHA is winning.”
This new Coke is highly unlikely to Make America Healthy Again. But it raises the question of how US soda manufacturers came to rely so heavily on the corn-based sweetener in the first place. The answer is protectionism, one of the main items on the Make America Great Again agenda. As it turns out, when you combine MAHA and MAGA, what you get is … Mexican Coke.