Barron Trump is being labeled an out-of-touch grifter online, two weeks after he launched his Palm Beach-based $40 energy drink while Americans struggle with rising prices due to his father’s economic policies.
SOLLOS, a herbal tea native to South America, enters the market with a premium price of $39 for a 12-pack, while a 12-pack of Red Bull, the country’s leading energy drink, sells on Amazon for anywhere from $17 to $25.
The company is also trying to cash in on merchandise associated with the Trump brand, selling a $95 sweatshirt, $40 shorts, an $80 bag, and a $30 baseball cap on its website.
The founders, Rodolfo Castillo, Spencer Bernstein, Stephen Hall, and Valentino Gomez, are a group of Palm Beach friends who work with Barron, who is officially on the beverage brand’s board.
The 20-year-old NYU Stern undergraduate keeps a low profile, typically staying out of the public eye, despite the internet’s obsession with him.
In the months leading up to the launch, two of the founders, Bernstein and Hall, who started with $1 million in private funding, announced on their LinkedIn profiles that they were pausing their studies at Villanova and Notre Dame, respectively, while another decided to step down from his role as a McKinsey Analyst.
The term SOLLOS was coined from the Spanish word “sol” for sun, followed by the backward spelling of the word, to represent the company’s motto “It Begins Where It Ends.”
The company came under fire on social media even before its launch for using a South American product and name while the Trump administration targeted Latinos via its current immigration policies.
“Sell the culture, deport the people” is what Occupy Democrats made of Barron’s new business plan.
But post-launch, backlash is targeted more at the drink’s cost. “The grift never stops with these people,” one user wrote.
“Daddy’s Lil Squirt Barron Trump is officially in the energy drink market… BANKRUPTCY #1,” reads another post on X.
“It all started in a cabana,” the website said, presumably in an attempt to be low-key and relatable.
The brand, which seeks to “truly fit how people in Florida actually live” and “actually complements life in the Sunshine State,” is registered to an address in Billionaire Beach, just a few blocks from the president’s Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, one of the country’s richest towns.
This price tag and business model are not targeted towards the average Floridian, who earns less than the average American annually.
The brand’s launch comes as the Trump administration faces criticism over the cost of the war in Iran, causing gas prices to surge and cost-of-living pressures to hit American households.
Just this past weekend, the president headed to Wisconsin to host an event at a rural farm.
There, he promised rural farmers, many of whom have livelihoods that are most affected by said cost-of-living pressures, and assured them that the war would be over and gas prices would go down… “soon.”
Given Barron’s father, President Donald Trump, has put his name on everything from steaks to bibles and even vodka, it will be interesting to see what product the first son pitches next.
