ADVERTISEMENT Another day, another chapter in the American Eagle / Sydney Sweeney controversy, which won’t seem to die down.
Following the polarising campaign that led many to call out racist undertones and label the fashion ads as “Nazi”, the viral backlash that ensued, the comments from The White House and other US conversatives regarding cancel culture, the response from American Eagle and the revelation that actress Sydney Sweeney is a registered Republican voter, now comes – somewhat predictably – Donald Trump’s take.
The US president has run to the defence of the 27-year-old Euphoria and White Lotus actress at the heart of the controversy by declaring on Truth Social: “Sydney Sweeney, a registered Republican, has the ‘HOTTEST’ ad out there. It’s for American Eagle, and the jeans are ‘flying off the shelves’. Go get ‘em Sydney!”
He continued: “On the other side of the ledger, Jaguar did a stupid, and seriously WOKE advertisement, THAT IS A TOTAL DISASTER! The CEO just resigned in disgrace, and the company is in absolute turmoil.”
He went on to mention other companies that he considers to be “woke”.
Trump reposted his comments three times to fix various typos and then decided to hit out at Taylor Swift, bashing the pop star by saying that she is “no longer hot.”
“Just look at Woke singer Taylor Swift. Ever since I alerted the world as to what she was by saying on TRUTH that I can’t stand her (HATE!). She was booed out of the Super Bowl and became, NO LONGER HOT.”
He presidentially added: “The tide has seriously turned – Being WOKE is for losers, being Republican is what you want to be.”
This is not the first time that Trump has beefed with Swift, with some exchanges online during last year’s election making headlines. Trump even falsely claimed Swift’s endorsement with AI-generated posts and went on to write “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT” on his social accounts.
In case you missed it, the American Eagle ad campaign, which declares “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans”, came under fire last month for the play on words “jeans” and “genes” – which many perceived as celebrating white supremacy and invoking eugenics.
One of the campaign’s most polarising clips features the 27-year-old actress saying: “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair colour, personality and even eye colour. My jeans are blue.”
Check out our explainer on the Sydney Sweeney controversy.
The US fashion retailer responded to the backlash over the weekend, stating: “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans is and always was about the jeans. Her jeans. Her story,” they posted on Instagram. “We’ll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way. Great jeans look good on everyone.”
On the same day that statement was issued, vice president JD Vance defended the campaign, saying: “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.”
He continued: “I mean, it actually reveals something pretty interesting about the Dems though, which is that you have a normal all-American beautiful girl doing like a normal jeans ad. They’re trying to sell jeans to kids in America and they have managed to so unhinge themselves over this thing. And it’s like, did you learn nothing from the November 2024 election?”
Sydney Sweeney has yet to address the controversy – something which some of her fans find troubling.
Not helping things is the fact that Sweeney’s Republican voter registration was recently revealed.
According to publicly available records, the actress is registered as a Republican voter in Florida. She registered to vote on 14 June 2024 – weeks after Donald Trump was convicted in New York City of criminal falsification of business records and a few months before he won a second US presidency.
While the Florida Department of State records confirm that the actress has an ‘Active’ voting status, meaning she was eligible to vote, this does not mean that she actually voted from Trump.
Still, this has galvanised those who were already slamming Sweeney in 2022 for posting a series of photos from her mother’s surprise birthday party, in which guests wore MAGA hats.
Faced with growing criticism, Sweeney issued a statement on social media at the time, pleading with the public to “stop making assumptions”.
“An innocent celebration… has turned into an absurd political statement, which was not the intention,” added Sweeney.
