{"id":130206,"date":"2025-08-08T22:52:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T22:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/130206\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T22:52:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T22:52:09","slug":"sydney-sweeneys-connection-to-maga-and-right-wing-politics-timeline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/130206\/","title":{"rendered":"Sydney Sweeney’s Connection to MAGA and Right-Wing Politics: Timeline"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSydney Sweeney<\/a>, the 27-year-old actress who rose to fame with roles in the hit HBO<\/a> series Euphoria<\/a> and The White Lotus<\/a>, isn\u2019t known for making political statements. True, she has signaled support for Black Lives Matter<\/a>, women\u2019s reproductive rights, and LGBTQ<\/a> representation in media, but these have been fairly boilerplate statements, sometimes caveated with the reminder that she prefers not to wade into these topics<\/a> in interviews. It seems that Sweeney is more focused on her work, which makes sense \u2014 the entertainment industry has kept her very busy in recent years.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd yet Sweeney has unwittingly become a lightning rod of sorts in the culture wars, an accidental avatar of American pride, or anti-wokeness, or [you fill in the blank], apparently just because she is blonde, blue-eyed, and blessed with ample cleavage. This strange co-opting of someone who is, after all, one conventionally attractive Hollywood star among many, spiked after Sweeney became the face of an American Eagle ad campaign<\/a> for jeans last month, but it has been around for a good while. Here\u2019s a complete rundown of how we got to this point.<\/p>\n

\t\tAugust 2022: MAGA Hat-Gate\t<\/p>\n

\n\tSweeney and her family celebrated her mother\u2019s sixtieth birthday with a hoedown in Idaho in August 2022, with most guests dressed in some kind of cowboy attire. (Sweeney hails from Spokane, Washington, which is just east of the neighboring state.) But in pictures that she and her brother posted to Instagram after the event, one person could be seen wearing a T-shirt that showed an American flag with a blue line, associated with the Blue Lives Matter movement, which functionally opposes Black Lives Matter through support for police. Others wore red MAGA-style hats<\/a> that said \u201cMake Sixty Great Again.\u201d Liberal fans accused Sweeney of being too cozy with family members who backed Donald Trump<\/a>, while right-wingers launched into the usual tirades about cancel culture (and entertained the idea that Sweeney might be one of their own).<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tSweeney at the time asked that people \u201cplease stop making assumptions\u201d but addressed the controversy further<\/a> the following year. \u201cThere were so many misinterpretations,\u201d she said in an interview with Variety<\/a>. \u201cThe people in the pictures weren\u2019t even my family. The people who brought the things that people were upset about were actually my mom\u2019s friends from L.A. who have kids that are walking outside in the Pride parade, and they thought it would be funny to wear because they were coming to Idaho.\u201d Alas, the explanation would do little to distance Sweeney from partisan discourse.<\/p>\n

\t\tMarch 2024: Hosting Saturday Night Live<\/strong>\t<\/p>\n

\n\tSweeney had assuredly made it as an A-lister by 2024, coming off the 2023 film Anyone But You<\/a>, a sleeper hit she not only starred in but co-produced, that was being hailed as a renaissance for the classic rom-com. As is typical for a breakout star, she was invited to host an episode of Saturday Night Live<\/a> in March, and the sketch where she plays a Hooters waitress<\/a> raking in a fortune in tips was a foregone conclusion.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile anticipation was high for Sweeney\u2019s appearance on the venerated comedy show, the right\u2019s reaction to a beautiful white woman on their TV screens was altogether bizarre. Columnists wrote thinkpieces with headlines like \u201cWokeness Is No Match for Sydney Sweeney\u2019s Undeniable Beauty<\/a>\u201d and \u201cYes, Sydney Sweeney\u2019s Boobs Are Anti-Woke<\/a>.\u201d She was also praised for bringing back \u201creal\u201d body positivity<\/a>. This outpouring of affection apparently all stemmed from Sweeney wearing a tight black dress and smiling when she took the stage at the end of the night to say her thank-yous. If that\u2019s all it takes to defeat wokeness, it couldn\u2019t have been much of a threat.<\/p>\n

\n\tLast month, clothing retailer American Eagle rolled out a major ad campaign for their fall line of jeans, with Sweeney featuring in a series of commercials that see her accentuating her curves (as almost any fashion model would). One spot included a scripted pun that raised eyebrows: \u201cGenes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality, and even eye color,\u201d Sweeney says. \u201cMy jeans are blue.\u201d Then the tagline, which appears at the end of every ad: \u201cSydney Sweeney has great jeans.\u201d In the context of the Trump era, with its mass deportations and appallingly frequent white supremacist rhetoric, the quip about Sweeney\u2019s superior genetics drew criticism from a small group of social media users who heard it as a racist dogwhistle.<\/p>\n

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\n\tThe outcry was minimal<\/a>, however, and most attention was focused \u2014 as ever \u2014 on Sweeney\u2019s looks. In fact, the supposed \u201cbacklash\u201d died out in a day or two, probably because everyone has bigger problems than a potentially tone-deaf denim ad. It was only because elements of the right were invested in the idea of liberals getting \u201ctriggered\u201d and \u201cmelting down\u201d over the campaign that the media cycle continued into the weeks beyond. <\/p>\n

\t\tAugust 2025: Trump and Fox News weigh in<\/strong>\t<\/p>\n

\n\tAs July led into August, right-wing politicians and media sensed an opportunity to turn the American Eagle commercials into an ongoing issue. \u201cWow. Now the crazy Left has come out against beautiful women,\u201d Sen. Ted Cruz<\/a> posted<\/a> on X. \u201cI\u2019m sure that will poll well\u2026.\u201d Also on X, podcaster Megyn Kelly wrote, \u201cI love how the leftist meltdown over the Sydney Sweeney ad has only resulted in a beautiful white blonde girl with blue eyes getting 1000x the exposure for her \u2018good genes.\u2019\u201d White House communications manager Steven Cheung mocked an op-ed critical of the ads, posting, \u201cCancel culture run amok. This warped, moronic, and dense liberal thinking is a big reason why Americans voted the way they did in 2024. They\u2019re tired of this bullshit.\u201c Vice President J.D. Vance<\/a> brought up the jeans campaign on the podcast Ruthless, also predicting that the response to it would benefit Republicans. \u201cMy political advice to the Democrats is continue to tell everybody who thinks Sydney Sweeney<\/a> is attractive is a Nazi,\u201d he said<\/a>. \u201cThat appears to be their actual strategy.\u201d (To the contrary, polling suggests that Democrats largely don\u2019t care<\/a> about the supposed American Eagle controversy.)<\/p>\n

\n\tFox News, rather than meaningfully acknowledge the renewed scrutiny President Trump is facing over his relationship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein<\/a>, found a way to make the \u201cwoke mob\u201d vs. Sweeney a headline for days on end, mentioning her at least 766 times<\/a> in one week (with Epstein earning only 53 mentions). After public records appearing to show that Sweeney is a registered Republican voter<\/a> in Florida began making the rounds online, Trump fielded a question about her. \u201cShe\u2019s a registered Republican?\u201d he asked<\/a>. \u201cOh, now I love her ad.\u201d He added, \u201cIf Sydney Sweeney is a registered Republican, I think her ad is fantastic.\u201d The next day, he took to Truth Social to post about the actress, deleting and revising the first few drafts of the statement, including one in which he misspelled her name several times. \u201cSydney Sweeney, a registered Republican, has the \u2018HOTTEST\u2019 ad out there,\u201d he wrote<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s for American Eagle, and the jeans are \u2018flying off the shelves.\u2019 Go get \u2018em Sydney!\u201d He also bashed Jaguar and Bud Light for \u201cwoke\u201d advertisements, as well as Taylor Swift, calling her \u201cNO LONGER HOT\u201d due to her political views and his past attacks on her.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n\tRight-wing social media users meanwhile attempted to manufacture some more outrage by inventing a trend based on Sweeney\u2019s ads. They claimed that college sorority houses were donning denim for dance videos on TikTok that nodded to the campaign. \u201cSorority sisters with good genes at the University of Oklahoma are getting geared up for rush with some cute and fun country dancing,\u201d one widely followed X user wrote<\/a>, sharing a clip. \u201cThey\u2019re happy, wholesome, and classic America. Nothing is more triggering to leftists.\u201d But the original video<\/a> makes no mention of the Sweeney spots, nor does the caption. Others made similarly misleading claims<\/a> about TikToks of sorority sisters dancing, using the phrase \u201cgreat genes\u201d in their captions when there is no indication that the college students intended to reference Sweeney or American Eagle.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s a measure of how far you have to go to extend the life of a right-wing trope when Democrats and leftists aren\u2019t really taking the bait. The challenge is all the greater given that Sweeney shown no interest in being a darling of conservatives and has not encouraged that perception of herself. You can expect plenty of chatter about Sweeney and her good genes in the weeks to come \u2014 if Trump is right about anything, it\u2019s that she\u2019s a very popular topic of conversation \u2014 but it will all come from one side of our extreme political divide.<\/p>\n