The headlines this week about the Fanjul family reading like a gilded fairy tale — Cuban exiles who rebuilt a sugar empire and now stand in line for a sweetheart deal — are exactly the kind of story the mainstream presses love to moralize about. Forbes and other outlets have noticed what patriots already see: a powerful American family that grew an industry and is being rewarded for investing in the country.
José “Pepe” Fanjul and his siblings didn’t inherit a profitless hobby; they built Florida Crystals and helped create ASR, now one of the world’s largest cane sugar refiners, with Florida Crystals alone reporting billions in revenue and producing a significant share of U.S. raw sugar. Those facts matter because this isn’t some Wall Street paper-pushing boogeyman — it’s real American agriculture, real factories, and real jobs in Florida and beyond.
President Trump didn’t stumble into this — he did what real leaders do and leaned on the private sector to bring jobs and production back home, prodding Coca-Cola to offer a U.S.-cane-sugar option and backing policies that level the playing field for American producers. The administration’s Big Beautiful Bill raised the sugar loan rate and the White House moved decisively to put tariffs on foreign sugar competitors, reshaping incentives so U.S. producers can compete.
Let’s be blunt: protecting American industry is not corruption — it is governance. When Coca-Cola announces a new Coke sweetened with U.S. cane sugar, that’s a win for American farmers and for consumers who value American-made products; leadership that prioritizes domestic supply chains earns praise, not scorn. The move also underscores how private enterprise and sensible policy can work together to reverse decades of outsourcing.
Of course the Fanjuls have been playing the political game for decades — donating, lobbying, and courting lawmakers of both parties — because that’s how industries protect themselves in Washington. Reports put their political spending and lobbying into the millions over the years, which should remind voters that influence flows where money and organization meet policy. Conservatives should be wary of cronyism, but we should also recognize the winners here are American workers and landowners who’ve chosen to invest and expand on U.S. soil.
Critics on the left and at think tanks will scream “corporate welfare” and call this a backroom handout, but those attacks often come from people who prefer open borders and cheaper foreign inputs over stable American livelihoods. If we want a robust economy, we should favor policies that reward investment in our communities and penalize those who ship jobs overseas. The real question for patriots is whether we will keep backing leaders who put America first, or allow a globalist status quo to hollow out our heartland.
Hardworking Americans deserve clarity and fairness, not moralizing lectures from coastal elites who never planted a cane stalk or signed a payroll check. Celebrate the return of American-produced products to our shelves, demand transparency where influence meets policy, and hold both corporations and politicians accountable — but don’t demonize success that benefits our country. If protecting American farmers and making our supply chains secure is what it takes to rebuild our nation’s economic muscle, then call it what it is: patriotism in action.
