U.S. President Donald Trump is commending Sydney Sweeney for her recent American Eagle campaign, following a wave of social media backlash over its messaging.
The denim brand’s latest advertisement, fronted by the Euphoria actor, whose tagline plays on the words “jeans” and “genes,” has been targeted by critics who suggest the brand is celebrating traits typically associated with whiteness.
“Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair colour, personality and even eye colour. My jeans are blue,” Sweeney says in the ad, which appears to have been scrubbed from the internet. Other versions still remain, such as this one, below.
On Monday, Trump told a reporter while disembarking a plane in Pennsylvania, “Oh, she’s a registered Republican, oh, now I love her ad. If Sydney Sweeney is a registered Republican, I think her ad is fantastic,” he said.
His comments followed a claim that The White Lotus star registered with the Republican Party ahead of the 2024 U.S. presidential election. (Several news outlets confirmed and corroborated with publicly available records that Sweeney is a registered Republican. Global News viewed Florida voter registration for a Sydney Sweeney, listed as a Republican, with the same birthday as the actor.)
Get daily National news
Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
The president continued to share his thoughts on the ad campaign 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 wrote.
American Eagle has defended the campaign, saying it is simply referring to the colour of Sweeney’s jeans.
The campaign “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,” the retailer wrote on Instagram.
The message marked the first response from the brand following days of backlash since the campaign’s launch last week.
In the run-up to its release, the company’s chief marketing officer told trade media outlets that it included “clever, even provocative language” and was “definitely going to push buttons,” The Associated Press reported.
Some critics have argued that the “genes” “jeans” wordplay is a nod, whether intentional or not, to eugenics, a discredited theory that held humanity could be improved through selective breeding for certain traits, including blue eyes and blonde hair.
Others have accused those knocking the campaign of reading too deeply into the messaging and imagery.
Some marketing experts said the buzz is always good, even if it’s not uniformly positive.
“If you try to follow all the rules, you’ll make lots of people happy, but you’ll fail,” Allen Adamson, co-founder of marketing consultancy Metaforce, said. “The rocket won’t take off.”
Sweeney has not commented on the backlash or confirmed her political affiliations.
— With files from The Associated Press
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
