Donald Trump appeared delighted when he found out that Sydney Sweeney is reportedly a registered Republican amid continued uproar over her American Eagle jeans commercials. Various news outlets, including The Guardian, recently reported the “Euphoria” and “White Lotus” Emmy nominee listed her party affiliation as Republican while registering to vote in Florida in June 2024, a few months before Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris in the presidential election.
“She’s a registered Republican? Oh, now I love her ad!” Trump told reporters July 3 boarding Air Force One in Allentown, Pennsylvania (via The Daily Beast). “Is that right, is Sydney Sweeney…? You’d be surprised at how many people are Republicans. That’s what I wouldn’t have known. But I’m glad you told me that. If Sydney Sweeney is a registered Republican, I think her ad is fantastic!”
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The ad Trump is referring to is American Eagle’s “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans” campaign, which has ignited outrage online over what some viewers see as American Eagle glorifying Sweeney’s white heritage and thin physique. The crux of the ad campaign creates a pun around “great genes,” which is the main driver of the controversy and even has some users on social media comparing the ads to “Nazi propaganda.”
“‘Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans’ is and always was about the jeans. Her jeans. Her story,” American Eagle said in a statement, standing by the ad campaign amid uproar. “We’ll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way. Great jeans look good on everyone.”
The ads caused so much chatter online that Trump’s White House weighed in on the backlash, with communications manager Steven Cheung calling the backlash a prime example of “cancel culture run amok.”
“This warped, moronic and dense liberal thinking is a big reason why Americans voted the way they did in 2024,” Cheung added. “They’re tired of this bullshit.”
Vice President JD Vance also mocked liberals for creating hysteria around the American Eagle campaign, saying on an episode of the “Ruthless” podcast: “My political advice to the Democrats is continue to tell everybody who thinks Sydney Sweeney is attractive is a Nazi. That appears to be their actual strategy.”
Vance continued, “I mean, it actually reveals something pretty interesting about the Dems, though, which is that you have, like, a normal all-American beautiful girl doing like a normal jeans ad, right? They’re trying to sell, you know, sell jeans to kids in America and they have managed to so unhinge themselves over this thing. And it’s like, you guys, did you learn nothing from the November 2024 election? I actually thought that one of the lessons [Democrats] might take is we’re going to be less crazy. And the lesson they have apparently taken is we’re going to attack people as Nazis for thinking Sydney Sweeney is beautiful.”
Even Stephen Colbert, who frequently speaks out against Trump and the White House, called the backlash against Sweeney and American Eagle an “overreaction.”
As for Sweeney herself, she has yet to comment publicly on the controversy her American Eagle campaign sparked. She’s been filming Season 3 of the HBO series “Euphoria” and recently walked the red carpet at the premiere for her new indie movie, “Americana.”
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