Goya Foods CEO Robert Unanue continued to align himself with former President Donald Trump and his election fraud conspiracy theories during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Sunday, bizarrely claiming that “in my opinion,” Trump is still president.
“It’s just an honor to be here. But my biggest honor today is gonna be that ― I think we’re gonna be on the same stage ― as, in my opinion, the real, the legitimate, and the still-actual president of the United States, Donald J. Trump,” he said on the CPAC stage.
Since a July 2020 appearance at the White House, Unanue’s loud adulation of Trump ― who routinely expressed xenophobic views targeting Latinx communities ― has prompted ongoing calls to boycott Goya Foods, a New Jersey-based company that markets Latin American food products.
Goya’s board reportedly voted to censure the CEO in late January after he publicly questioned the legitimacy of the November election, which President Joe Biden won with a majority of the popular vote and 306 Electoral College votes to Trump’s 232. The decision meant Unanue will be prohibited from speaking to the media without the board’s permission, CNN reported.
It’s unclear if Unanue sought permission to make the CPAC address, during which he repeatedly and falsely suggested the election results were fraudulent and that Trump had won.
“We still have faith that the majority of the people of the United States voted for the president,” he said. “I think a great majority of the people in the United States voted for President Trump, and even a few Democrats.”
Goya Foods did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
Prior to the board’s decision, Unanue had faced renewed backlash over cable news appearances in the aftermath of the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol led by Trump’s supporters.
He claimed on Fox News that media and tech companies want to “cancel” God, free speech, and American culture, history and liberty by blocking Trump from social media platforms following months of his disinformation about the election. Unanue also said there was a “war coming” during a Fox Business appearance on Inauguration Day.