Barron Trump, the 20-year-old son of President Donald Trump and Melania Trump, has launched a yerba mate-based energy drink called Sollos, and the early reaction says as much about the product's critics as it does about the beverage itself.
The brand debuted in May with a launch party in West Palm Beach. Sollos positions itself as a Florida-lifestyle drink built on organic ingredients, with its pineapple and coconut flavor retailing at $39 for a 12-pack. The company's website describes the origin story simply: "It all started in a cabana, with a simple goal: create a beverage that actually complements life in the Sunshine State."
Barron Trump is listed as a director and co-founder of the company. It marks his second known business venture, following his role as a co-founder of World Liberty Financial, the Trump family's cryptocurrency project, alongside his father and brothers Donald Jr. and Eric.
The most telling early review came from Slate writer Heather Schwedel, who tried the product and filed a review that read like a reluctant confession. Her verdict landed in a place she clearly hadn't planned on.
"I kept drinking, and unfortunately, Sollos continued to grow on me."
That word, "unfortunately", tells you everything about the cultural headwinds any Trump-branded product faces in certain media circles. Schwedel went further, admitting the drink had won her over despite her apparent reservations.
"I'm having one now as I write this, and I would go so far as to say I like it."
She then added a caveat aimed squarely at her own audience, warning readers that her enjoyment of the drink "should really not be a mark in its favor." In other words: the product is fine, but admitting it might cost you social standing in the right zip codes.
The social media reaction followed a familiar script. One X user with the handle @DogProtector23 offered a straightforward take, noting that Barron Trump "is in business, launching an energy drink called Sollos, which puts a new spin on the traditional South American herbal elixir yerba mate. Nice packaging."
Others were less generous, and less interested in the actual product.
An X user posting under the handle @Mtn_Gma called the venture "family privilege" and urged a boycott. An Instagram commenter dismissed the drink solely because of the name attached to it: "barron trump? that is why I would never buy it."
Neither critic offered a word about the taste, the ingredients, or the price point. The objection wasn't to the beverage. It was to the last name on the label.
Set aside the surname for a moment. A 20-year-old co-founding a consumer brand, sourcing organic ingredients, pricing competitively in a crowded energy drink market, and throwing a launch event in South Florida, that's entrepreneurship. The yerba mate category has been growing for years, driven by health-conscious consumers looking for alternatives to synthetic energy drinks loaded with artificial stimulants. Sollos appears to be chasing that market with a lifestyle angle rooted in Florida's outdoor culture, surfing, tennis, sunshine.
The Sollos website describes the drink as "refreshing after a surf session, energizing enough to carry you through a tennis set, and crafted with organic ingredients." That's a clear brand identity aimed at an active, younger demographic. Whether it succeeds will depend on distribution, repeat purchases, and whether the product holds up against established competitors.
But the early media coverage hasn't focused much on any of that. It has focused on the name.
Several questions remain unanswered. What other flavors does Sollos plan to offer beyond pineapple and coconut? What is Barron Trump's exact operational role, is he hands-on in product development, or more of a brand figurehead? How will the company scale distribution beyond Florida? None of these details have surfaced publicly.
What has surfaced is the reflexive hostility that greets any commercial venture attached to the Trump family. World Liberty Financial drew similar scrutiny when it launched. The pattern is consistent: the product is secondary; the politics are primary.
The Slate review captured this dynamic perfectly, even if unintentionally. A professional writer tasted a drink, liked it, kept drinking it, and then felt compelled to warn her readers not to draw the obvious conclusion. She treated her own honest reaction as a problem to be managed rather than a straightforward consumer endorsement.
That tells you less about the energy drink and more about the media environment in which it launched.
Energy drinks are a brutally competitive category. Red Bull, Monster, Celsius, and a growing roster of yerba mate brands already crowd the shelves. A $39 twelve-pack puts Sollos at a premium price point that demands quality and brand loyalty to sustain.
Barron Trump has the name recognition to generate initial buzz. Whether Sollos can convert curiosity into a lasting customer base depends on execution, not politics. The boycott crowd will boycott. The curiosity buyers will try it once. The repeat customers, the ones who actually build a beverage brand, will decide based on what's in the can.
A 20-year-old launching a business used to be the kind of story everyone could root for. Now it depends on whose kid he is.
