US President Donald Trump weighed in on American Eagle’s controversial ad featuring Sydney Sweeney during a press briefing.
“Oh, now I love her ad,” adding that he finds the campaign “fantastic,” said the president and thanked the reporter who informed him that the actress was actually registered as a Republication.
The president said that he would never have known she was a Republican otherwise
White House communications director Steven Cheung called the backlash “cancel culture run amok,” while Vice President JD Vance criticized Democrats for overreacting to what he called a harmless jeans advertisement
Though Sydney Sweeney is officially a registered Republican in Florida her public silence on politics and her handling of recent criticism has raised questions on her political affiliation.
Public records show Sweeney registered with the Republican Party in Monroe County, Fla., on June 14, 2024.
Yet she has not made any political endorsements, campaign appearances, or issue-based statements.
It’s also not known whether she supported or voted for Donald Trump during the November 2024 Presidential election.
Even her mother’s 2022 birthday event, which featured MAGA-style attire was later described by Sweeney as humor rather than political backing
The American Eagle ad in question sparked fierce debate over its pun on “genes.”
Critics claimed that pairing the phrase “Sydney Sweeney has great genes” with the actor’s blonde hair and blue eyes evoked troubling racial connotations.
The campaign ended with her crossing out “genes” and replacing it with “jeans”, a move that inflamed conversations around Western beauty standards.