The Daily Signal - Goya CEO: ‘No,’ Trump’s Pro-Border Security Agenda Won’t Cost Him Hispanic Vote

Episode Date: September 23, 2024

Hispanic voters who came to the country legally are “not for people just coming over the border” illegally, Goya Foods CEO Bob Unanue says.  “No,” Unanue said, when asked whether former President Donald Trump’s border policies would cost him the Hispanic vote in the 2024 presidential election.  The CEO is a longtime supporter of Trump and was thrust into the political spotlight four years ago after stating publicly that the U.S. was “blessed” to have Trump as president. The remark triggered calls from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, D-N.Y., and others to boycott the Goya brand, which sells its products in the U.S. and many Spanish-speaking countries.  The boycott failed, and “business has been great” since then, Unanue says.  Unanue remains a vocal Trump supporter, and in his new book, “Blessed, Donald J. Trump, and the Spiritual War,” he explains why he thinks Trump is the leader America needs at this moment in history.  The chairman of the Hispanic Leadership Coalition, Unanue, whose grandfather immigrated to America from Spain, joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss the biggest issues on the minds of Hispanic voters and why he is an unapologetic Trump supporter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the DailySitville podcast for Monday, September 23rd. I'm Virginia Allen. About four years ago, the far left tried to cancel the CEO of Goya Foods, Bob Unanoi. You may remember the situation. Unanoi spoke at the White House about four years ago, and he said that the U.S. was blessed to have a president like Donald Trump. Well, not only did that attempted cancel not succeed, but Unanoi says, that business since then has been better than ever. He is speaking out in his new book, Blessed Donald J. Trump and The Spiritual War. I sit down with Unanoi on the Daily's little podcast and discuss the current situation in the United States, the election, and if Donald Trump

can successfully capture the Hispanic vote. Stay tuned for my conversation with Unanoi after this. syndicated nationally from the Daily Signal. It's the Tony Kinnitcast. Man, you've got me hook, light, and sinker. Now I want to tune into your program. Interviews from the border. Coverage from inside leftist riots. Exposing those targeting children.

From the guy leaving liberal journalist, speechless. It's the Tony Kinnettcast. Join us live on the Daily Signals, YouTube and X-stream every weeknight at 7 p.m. Eastern Or anywhere you get your podcasts. Well, I'm so excited to have with us on the show today, the CEO of Goya Foods, Bob Unanoi. Thank you so much for being with us today. Really appreciate your time.

Thank you, Virginia. And you did a great job with my last name. The first name, Bob, is easy, but, you know, the second one is a little bit tougher. Well, it's a great name. And it was one that you were introduced at the White House by former president Donald Trump, then President Donald Trump back in 2020. And you gave some comments. It was the middle of COVID. There was so much happening. And, you know, businesses, many businesses were really struggling. And there was also a need for businesses to really step, step up at that time. And you gave some very

positive remarks about Trump at the White House. And you said that the nation was really blessed to have Trump as a president. For those comments, you received quite a lot of backlash, the far left tried cancel you, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. But I'm curious to know since then, it's been a few years since that situation happened at the White House and the left tried to cancel you. How's business been? Business has been great. You know, I was there to offer food to a country that didn't have food because people were, you know, getting in their bunkers very afraid. You know, in the Bible, it says 365 times, be not afraid. We were in the middle of COVID. The government had said,

you know, we're in an essential business. So we're in the food business. But work is essential. You know, you need a reason to get up every day. God, family work. And so we were working. We went to our employees and said, hey, this is going to be a tough road. But what do you think? And they said, well, we can't do it. If we don't do it, no one else will. So, We said, present, we said, we know we're here. How many restaurants and other businesses were closed? And unfortunately, it was an attack at the end of the day, not only in the United States, but around the world, on the working class. And if we didn't have those essential businesses running, farming, distribution, food manufacturing, you know, we'd all be, it'd be a different world.

And, you know, a lot of people that don't need to work physically, work virtually, you know, they were able to survive. And, you know, I have six children. One of them was very sick here in Texas. And a doctor that another son had came with the advice to his brother, my other son, tell him to get up and walk. Because this was the lay down and die to death. disease, the COVID. And if you weren't moving, you were dying. But anyway, so at that time, I wanted to reach out to the White House to say, because I felt that our president in our country

wanted to get closer to, needed to get closer to the Latino-Hispanic community. The United States is the second largest Hispanic community in the world after Mexico. We will be the biggest group by 2050 or much sooner. And so, and there's so many things that go along with it. But, you know, the Hispanic community, the black community, a lot of those minorities are the backbone of this country. And work is so important, you know, God, family work. And so, this attack kind of killed our spirit and our reason to get up every day. So I wanted to offer to the to the country and to the chief executive Donald Trump at the time. And I had been with the Obama's before and their Let's Move and my plate initiatives, you know, healthy eating. But we wanted to get

close to Donald Trump. At the same time, they offered me a position as a commissioner to be on the White House Commission for Hispanic prosperity. And I said, well, that's a good idea also. So on July 9th, and before that I got COVID. There wasn't vaccines at the time, and I've never taken any since because I got God's vaccine. And my friend, Dr. Carson, says, you have the God's vaccine, the T-cell memory, you know, and it was interesting, though, I traveled quite a bit, because we have facilities in Europe, traveled quite a bit during that time period, and you had to take PCR tests and things like that. But this one doctor who was able to get me a quick test, and I'd always go there, or this one clinic, there's a hold for the doctor. And he says, you know, I want to save

your life. So, wow, all of a sudden, everybody's interested in my health. I said, well, I've had the vaccine. I mean, I've had COVID. I haven't had a doctor. Oh, that only lasts a couple months. I said, I know people who have gotten sick or died over it. Because I can tell you, the victim of misinformation, but basically, they were the victim of greed because you got money for a COVID diagnosis on a death. You got money for a jab instead of a test. And, you know, what runs the world today is money and power, money and control. You know, the genie in Aladdin says to Aladdin, never drink from the cup of money or power. You'll never be satisfied. And, you know, you've seen that the industries that have prospered.

The only industries that have really prospered under this Harris administration is drugs and trafficking. You know, 75% of people trafficked are women, 25% are children. The Latino community is one of the biggest victims of this. And this is just, it's horrific what's happening. You know, this year now, the Inspector General of HHS Health and Humanism, Women Services has found 325,000 children missing. Basically, they're sold. They're sold into slavery, into sex, into all that.

But I'm getting off a topic. But at the time when in the middle of COVID, on July 9th, 2020, we were summoned to the White House to do this commission. And at the same time, they offered me to speak. And I also decided, hey, let me offer a couple million pounds of food to the country. It turned out to be five million pounds, and not only in this country, but in Venezuela and other places around the world where the same issues were happening. So I get there, and it's amazing, you know, in the room with the president and the cabinet

and all these people and the media. And as I'm speaking in the Rose Garden, the Holy Spirit put this word blessed on my lips. I said, we're blessed to have a president, like President Trump, who's a builder, you know, love and build versus hate and destroy. And it's as if I had yelled fire in the theater. And it didn't happen all at once. There was no bolt of lightning or anything like that. But the next day, all of a sudden I found myself in the middle of a controversy because

I used the word blessed. How could I use a word blessed with a person that people, either hated or loved, but the hate came out, the evil came out, and this cultural war, cancel culture, they called for a boycott of our country, company. Fortunately, because I really had done nothing wrong, and they called for my apologies, and, you know, I said, hell no, I'm not going to apologize. And you know, you apologize, and then you get fired anyway. So, you know, I said, I stuck to my guns.

And it's the Holy Spirit that represents courage. And that sent us on a road that is quite an interesting story, which I outlined in my book, blessed Donald Trump and the spiritual war. So was that situation at the White House what inspired this new book, blessed Donald Trump and the spiritual war? Was that the beginning of this idea of, hey, I want to write a book about where we are at this moment in history? Well, you know, I was really nobody, I didn't have a platform. I'm a CEO of a company, but all of a sudden I was placed, I believe, by the Holy Spirit,

in the middle of this controversy to say, you know, hey, we need to follow two paths, either love, build, create, or hate, destroy, divide. And so four years later today, I'm talking to you. I'm talking to Maria Bartaromo. I'm talking to a lot of people in the media Huckabee, Tucker Carlson, many people. And for several weeks after the White House event, I was on all the media were talking about this, CNN and all those other people. but I wouldn't do interviews with them, only with friendly fire, because, you know, those are the people who are attacking you. And, you know, AOC call for a boycott. We did so well. This one gentleman working with Eric Bowling did a GoFundMe, raised over $300,000, did a video and went out and bought our product. So this boycott turned into a bycott. And I think that was a whole.

Holy Spirit, protecting company and protecting me and Donald Trump. And I think at that moment, and it's some amazing things that have happened with rosaries, with people with predictions. But I think God put his hand on Donald J. Trump and said, you know, he's going to lead this country, help lead this country closer to God, to the point where you know, fast forward to June 11th at, or, you know, Was it? No, July 13th. And at 6.11, which is Ephesians, you know, put on the armor of God, St. Paul to the Ephesians,

put on the armor of God, where Donald J. Trump turned his head at the exact moment that he was shot at. And the bullets went parallel to his head instead of perpendicular, and we have him still with us. So I think the hand of God, the Holy Spirit, is protecting this man because we are moving away from God. This is a spiritual war that was started on, I believe, on that July 9th, where, you know, the Holy Spirit says, we're blessed. And let's give you this platform and let's ignite the cancel culture. let's ignite. And you look at the hatred that's happening today against a Jewish community, against, you know,

we're not called to hate. We're called to love God and our neighbors as ourselves. Through being involved in the movie, Sound of Freedom with Jim Caviesel and Eduardo Bredastigy and other people talking about child trafficking, I think was ignited. This also brought attention to this plight of child traffic and human trafficking.

And so I developed Goya Cares, which has to do with the trafficking booth. At the same time, it has to do with mental health of the children. You know, Tim Ballard, who's played by Jim Cavizal, goes into the jungles of Columbia to rescue a child, children, which he did and still does. But, you know, imagine the children today. The children today and youth are not feeling valued. You know, they wake up every day. They say, hey, look, you don't have to go to school for two years in some places.

The school unions kept the teachers away from schools and the kids out of the schoolroom and the classroom. And, you know, the mental health, the superiors. suicides has just exploded. And I think that, you know, children, youth today don't feel value. You know, we get value from God as children of God. We don't get value from a letter, from a flag. I mean, they have map flags now. Mine are attracted people. Even pedophiles have their flag. But we have to realize that our value comes from God. And then to love and realizing that we love ourselves. and then we love ourselves, we can love our neighbor as ourselves. And instead, you know, we're finding ourselves in the spiritual war with this hatred and division

instead of love and creating. And that's what my book goes into. And it's a long, it's a little bit of a story there, but it's about the spiritual war and how the Holy Spirit has intervened. And I think we're in an existential. election. It's a critical time. And I think so many people are recognizing that as we look at some of those issues that you've just mentioned that Americans are thinking about that are really on the forefront. Bob, I am curious to ask you, you know, there was some recent polling done just ahead of the election

in looking specifically at the Hispanic population and where they stand. And there was some recent polling reported that said that among the Hispanic vote that Trump, behind Harris, just by about 10 points. And I think a lot of folks would think that would actually usually be a larger margin. But do you think that's a pretty accurate representation that in some of those swing states, there's maybe only a 10 point difference between Trump and Harris? No, actually, you know, I've been, after my thing at the White House, I was contacted by Ben Carson of his American Cornerstone Institute,

who's now the face chairman for the campaign. AFPI, which is Brooke Rollins and Linda McMahon, who's on the transition team. And they approached me to reach out to the Hispanic community. And so if you go back a couple elections, the Hispanic community was 20-some percent, you know, conservative. The last one was in the 30s. And now we're mid-40s and someplace 50 percent. So I think the conditions that. that have been created during this administration,

the Harris administration of inflation, declaring war and fossil fuels from the very beginning, which created then the Green New Deal, which is very expensive and not realistic. Our weakness around the world, which the war in Ukraine and between Russian Ukraine, they have 50% of the world's fertilizer, 30% of the world's wheat, 20% of the world corn, caused tremendous inflation.

Plus, you know, where, you know, I've worked on my life. I've worked almost 50 years. The average social security check is $1,200, but you have illegals coming into this country and many, some criminals who want to do is harm. They're handed $3,800, $4,000 a month. And they haven't worked a day in their lives here. And it's, so that costs money too. I am curious to get your thoughts on the border issue. Is that an issue that you think will cost Trump in being so clear on the border? Will that cost Trump with Hispanic voters? No, because Hispanic voters who in this country have waited online, sometimes many years. They're not for people just coming over the border. And by the way, Donald Trump and I was listening to him the other day is saying he's going to, deport, the criminal, you know, there's several steps in this. You know, you have the dreamers who have been there for many years. And so it's a complicated issue over the years. But what's happened over the last three and a half years, four years, is an influx from 180 countries from China, from Iran, from Venezuela. I have a daughter-in-law from Venezuela. The Tren de Aragua, which is overtaking apartment buildings in Aurora, Colorado, in New York.

city. They're brutal groups who Maduro has exported out of Colombia, out of Venezuela, and sent to our country. And we're turning on, it's safe. He's advertising in Venezuela. It's safe because all the Chen Neraagua has left and all that, you know, as Cuba did in 1980. And MS-13, I was recently with President Buceli in El Salvador. They've arrested 15,000 MS-13. But many of the MS-13 are in this country.

You know, if you have people, we're a country of immigrants. So you have immigrants that come into this country as my grandfather came. I started Goya Foods. In 1904, went to Puerto Rico and then, and like John F. Kennedy,

he said, ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. That you come here to participate, to make this country great and prosperous. And so, you know, we're opening the doors to people who want to come in here and destroy us. And that can't be.

We wouldn't let them into our homes. We can't let them into our country and put ourselves at risk and lose this country because we're, so the Hispanic, for several reasons. One, inflation has the biggest, effect on minority groups, black, Hispanic, et cetera. And there, a lot of the working class, the grunt work, if you will. And so they're feeling the punch, the crunch of having to work two jobs, et cetera. The other thing is the Latino, Hispanic is the biggest victim of trafficking and abuse. They're being exploited and abused. And they're driving us into poverty. And

poverty is slavery. Dr. Ben Carson said there's more slaves in the world today than in the history of the world. And there's a few people that want the greed and control that want to keep us in submission, in exploitation, in abuse. And it's time that, you know, the hardworking people of this country, you know, reject a party that is, bent on exploitation. Of course, you have the big cities in every state almost here in Texas, Houston, Dallas, St. Austin, San Antonio, that are, with all the handouts, you know, we're saying there's no reason to get up in the morning, but we need to have a purpose. But if we educate ourselves, see it in communist countries, it doesn't matter what education

you have because everyone's paid the same, supposedly. So there's no incentive to excel. So why educate yourselves? We can just sit back and the government's going to take care of us. But it's not the government taking care of us. It's them buying our souls and our hearts and saying, we control you. Don't worry about, you know, producing the best out of the gifts that God's, God has given you. Yeah, well, and you offer so much insight.

And really, I know you're diving into your story as well in your book. Encourage all of our listeners, it's out September 24th, blessed Donald J. Trump and the Spiritual War. Again, you can get that book out officially on September 24th. You can pre-order a copy. Bob Unanoe, the CEO of Goya Foods. Bob, thank you for your time today. Really appreciate you joining the show. Thank you, Virginia.

God bless you. With that, that's going to do it for today's episode. Thanks so much for joining us here on the Daily Signal Podcast. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button, so you never miss out on new shows. We'll see you're right back here around 5 p.m. for our top news edition. The Daily Signal podcast is made possible because of listeners like you. Executive producers are Rob Louis and Katrina Trinko. Hosts are Virginia Allen, Brian Gottstein, Tyler O'Neill, and Elizabeth Mitchell.

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