President Donald Trump wants Coca-Cola to taste like it used to, even if it means shaking up a key part of the American economy to do it.
On Wednesday, Trump announced on his Truth Social platform that he’s pushing soda giant Coca-Cola to replace high-fructose corn syrup with cane sugar in its flagship product. And in true Trump fashion, he claimed victory before anything had actually changed.
“I have been speaking to Coca-Cola about using REAL Cane Sugar in Coke in the United States, and they have agreed to do so,” the president posted. “This will be a very good move by them — You’ll see. It’s just better!”
Coke fans have long praised Mexican Coke, which is made with cane sugar and, according to enthusiasts, tastes crisper and less syrupy than the U.S. version. But within hours of Trump’s post, Coca-Cola issued a carefully worded statement that did not confirm any sweeping change, saying only that it would have “more details on new innovative offerings” coming soon.
Still, Trump’s pressure campaign was enough to unsettle the corn industry—and send markets into a spin.
“Replacing high fructose corn syrup with cane sugar doesn’t make sense,” said John Bode, president and CEO of the Corn Refiners Association, a large trade group. “President Trump stands for American manufacturing jobs, American farmers, and reducing the trade deficit. Replacing high fructose corn syrup with cane sugar would cost thousands of American food manufacturing jobs, depress farm income, and boost imports of foreign sugar, all with no nutritional benefit.”
Wall Street appeared to agree. According to Axios, shares of Archer Daniels Midland, a top corn processor, dropped nearly 6% in pre-market trading on Thursday—a loss of about $1.5 billion in value. Ingredion, another major corn refiner, fell almost 7%.
Coca-Cola has used high-fructose corn syrup in U.S. products since the 1980s. Cane sugar remains more common in countries like Mexico and India, and the Mexican version of Coke is sold in even some American stores. A full switch to cane sugar, however, would likely hurt Midwestern states like Iowa—America’s top corn producer—while benefiting sugar-producing states, like Florida.
That’s not lost on political observers, nor is the fact that Trump’s announcement comes at a time when his relationship with American farmers is already strained.
In Iowa, soybean farmers are still recovering from Trump’s revived trade war with China. The New York Times reported in May that exports have plummeted and prices are falling as China turns to other suppliers. Meanwhile, Trump’s administration has abandoned earlier commitments to protect undocumented agricultural workers, instead pursuing mass deportations that threaten farm labor pipelines.
And now, with his Coke campaign, Trump is aligning himself with another culture-war figure. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has criticized high-fructose corn syrup as “just a formula for making you obese and diabetic,” is leading a broader push to eliminate artificial dyes and additives from food.
A recent report from his “Make America Healthy Again” commission flagged high-fructose corn syrup as a driver of obesity and metabolic disease, despite minimal scientific consensus that cane sugar is significantly better.
So sure, Trump may be trying to Make Coke Great Again. But if he gets his way, he might devastate corn country—and alienate the very voters who helped send him to the White House.