President Donald Trump was elated to find out that actress Sydney Sweeney was registered as a Republican after her controversial American Eagle jeans ad caused a political firestorm.
Daily Mail asked Trump his reaction to Sweeney’s surprise voter registration after he landed in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and the president didn’t shy away from his excitement.
‘Oh, now I love her ad,’ Trump responded.
‘You’d be surprised at how many people are Republican. That’s one I wouldn’t have known but I’m glad you told me that,’ he continued.
‘If Sydney Sweeney is a registered Republican, I think her ad is fantastic.’
Daily Mail previously revealed that Sweeney registered with the Republican Party of Florida in Monroe County last June, according to public voter records.
The reveal comes as Sweeney’s controversial advertising campaign with American Eagle sparked intense backlash among liberals who accused it of subtly promoting white supremacy and eugenics.
But the controversy led many to leap to Sweeney’s defense, pointing out that the reference to ‘great genes/ jeans ‘ was simply a play on words about Sweeney’s good looks and its denim line.
In the promo, a camera pans on Sweeney putting on her jeans as she explains how genes are passed down ‘from parents to offspring.’
She tells the audience that genes determine ‘traits like hair color, personality, and even eye color.’
As the camera pans up her body, Sweeney then seductively concludes, ‘my genes are blue.’
She continues: ‘My body’s composition is determined by my genes…’ before exclaiming: ‘Hey, eyes up here’ as the camera cuts back to her face.
The ad generated intense backlash with critics claiming that the reference to ‘great genes’ is a subtle comment on her whiteness.
A report in Salon argued that praising someone’s genes has a historical connection to celebrating thinness, and conventional attractiveness.
However, prominent figures on the right have defended the ad, criticizing accusers of jealousy for Sweeney’s attractiveness or extracting unnecessary meanings from the pun.
Vice President JD Vance didn’t hold back on the topic during an interview on 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 joked.
‘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?’ the vice president continued.
‘To try to sell, you know, sell jeans to kids in America, and they have managed to so unhinge themselves over this thing.’
Republican Senator Ted Cruz weighed in on the debate, writing on X: ‘Wow. Now the crazy Left has come out against beautiful women. I’m sure that will poll well….’
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung also took a stance in support of Sweeney on social media: ‘Cancel culture run amok. This warped, moronic, and dense liberal thinking is a big reason why Americans voted the way they did in 2024. They’re tired of this bull**t.’
The anchors on Fox & Friends also dismissed the outrage the ad caused, arguing American Eagle asked Sweeney to be the face of the campaign because of her beauty.
Fox anchor Lawrence Jones argued that the ad was ‘about marketing,’ adding, ‘Good-looking people sell products very well.’
‘You gotta know who you are marketing to,’ Jones said, arguing that advertisers have leaned into diversity in recent years.
‘And it’s no offense to stocky people, I love thick women, too,’ he continued.
‘But sometimes they don’t sell the product. And it’s all about who sells the product and who men envision and who women envision themselves to be.’
HBO talk show host and comedian Bill Maher also issued a blistering rant, attacking ‘online social justice girls’ for criticizing the ad.
‘She talks about the fact that she has blue eyes, and then she says, ‘I have great jeans’… Ya know, because she’s wearing jeans,’ the comedian said in his monologue on Real Time with Bill Maher.
‘According to the woke people – this means that she’s a white supremacist,’ Maher continued.
He then made a joke that ‘online social justice girls’ are hypocritical for slamming Sweeney, but ‘swipe left on every bald guy’ on Tinder.
American Eagle denied accusations that the ad had any nods to racism in a statement that read: ‘”Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans” is and always was about the jeans’.
‘Her jeans. her story. We’ll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way. Great jeans look good on everyone’.