{"id":45858,"date":"2025-08-05T17:48:36","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T17:48:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/45858\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T17:48:36","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T17:48:36","slug":"why-is-donald-trump-discussing-sydney-sweeney-and-american-eagle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/45858\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is Donald Trump discussing Sydney Sweeney and American Eagle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Watch: Trump on Sydney Sweeney commercial and political affiliation<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump has praised actress Sydney Sweeney in the wake of a social media backlash against an advertisement she features in.<\/p>\n

“Sydney Sweeney, a registered Republican, has the HOTTEST ad out there,” he wrote in a Truth Social post on Monday. “Go get ’em Sydney!”<\/p>\n

The Emmy-nominated actress, who starred in Euphoria and The White Lotus, appears in a jeans advertisement for American Eagle where she says: “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair colour, personality and even eye colour. My jeans are blue.” <\/p>\n

Some criticised the 27-year-old blue-eyed star’s wordplay in the commercial, which sparked a debate over race and beauty standards.<\/p>\n

American Eagle has defended the advert, saying it is purely referring to the company’s denim jeans. <\/p>\n

What is the controversy? <\/p>\n

American Eagle released the advertising campaign with Sweeney on 23 July. <\/p>\n

The slogan “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans” appeared on television, social media and on the outside of storefronts. <\/p>\n

Almost instantly, it received pushback from some on social media.<\/p>\n

They criticised the advert’s genes pun – including one line which said the blonde-haired, blue-eyed actress “has great jeans” – as echoing rhetoric associated with eugenics, the discredited belief that humanity could be improved through selective breeding.<\/p>\n

Others, however, backed Sweeney and described the outrage as overblown. <\/p>\n

Reports later surfaced that Sweeney is a registered Republican in Florida. Shortly after, Trump made comments about the row and expressed his support for the actress, whom he described as a “registered Republican”.<\/p>\n

Sweeney, meanwhile, has not commented on the backlash or confirmed her political affiliation.<\/p>\n

\"GettyGetty Images<\/p>\n

What has American Eagle said? <\/p>\n

The company said the campaign “is and always was about the jeans”. <\/p>\n

“Her jeans. Her story,” American Eagle said. “We’ll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way.”<\/p>\n

Since Trump began speaking about the advertisement on Monday, the company’s stock has skyrocketed and was up by as much as 20%. <\/p>\n

Allen Adamson, co-founder of marketing consultancy Metaforce, said American Eagle “nailed” the ad.<\/p>\n

“It is exponentially harder than it was years ago,” he told the BBC. “Success in marketing today is to get consumers sharing [advertisements] on social.”<\/p>\n

But they have to be “extraordinary” for people to share them, “whether that’s extraordinarily good or extraordinarily bad,” he said.<\/p>\n

He added that the social media buzz American Eagle is getting from the advertisement is worth 10 or 20 times what the company spent on making it. <\/p>\n

Is Sweeney a registered Republican? <\/p>\n

Sweeney has been registered as a Republican in the state of Florida since 2024, records show. <\/p>\n

But she has not spoken out about politics. <\/p>\n

She made headlines in 2023 when videos and images from her mother’s birthday party were shared online and showed some attendees in Make America Great Again hats. <\/p>\n

Sweeney responded and said people should “stop making assumptions” and turning the “innocent celebration” into an “absurd political statement.”<\/p>\n

Months later, she was asked about it in an interview: “Honestly, I feel like nothing I say can help the conversation,” she told GQ. <\/p>\n

“It’s been turning into a wildfire, and nothing I can say will take it back to the correct track,” she added.<\/p>\n

\"GettyGetty Images<\/p>\n

What has Trump said about it?<\/p>\n

On Sunday, reporters travelling with the US president asked him about Sweeney. <\/p>\n

“You’d be surprised at how many people are Republicans,” Trump said after a reporter stated that the White Lotus star is a registered Republican.<\/p>\n

“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,” Trump said on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Even before Trump weighed in, the saga had been the focus of conservative media with some suggesting the advert had been not only a great promotion for American Eagle – but also for the political party. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Watch: Trump on Sydney Sweeney commercial and political affiliation President Donald Trump has praised actress Sydney Sweeney in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[64,63,336,128],"class_list":["post-45858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-genetics","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-genetics","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}