Trump calls Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle ‘good jeans’ campaign the ‘HOTTEST’ ad around, sending company stock soaring
President Trump delved further into the controversy over actress Sydney Sweeney and her recent controversial ad campaign with American Eagle.
“Sydney Sweeney, a registered Republican, has the ‘HOTTEST’ ad out there. It’s for American Eagle, and the jeans are ‘flying off the shelves,'” he wrote in a post on Truth Social Monday morning. “Go get them Sydney!”
The company’s shares soared in the wake of Trump’s post.
This was the second time in less than 24 hours that the president intervened in the debate. Last weekend, he sided with Sweeney during a call with reporters after being told the actress is a registered Republican.
“Is she a registered Republican?” Trump asked. “Oh, now I love her ad. You’d be surprised how many people are Republicans. I wouldn’t have known that, but I’m glad you told me.” He added: “If Sydney Sweeney is a registered Republican, I think her ad is fantastic.” Sweeney has been a registered Republican in Florida since June 2024, BuzzFeed reports.
Last week, a top White House communications official also responded to critics of the clothing retailer’s ad, calling their criticism of the campaign “twisted” and “idiotic” in a social media post this week.
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung wrote on
What started as a buzzy commercial starring one of Hollywood’s most in-demand actresses has quickly evolved into a sprawling debate about sex, race, politics and American culture as a whole.
How did a single 30-second ad create such a stir? Here’s how we got here.
What is the advertisement?
The ad, or rather a series of ads, is built around the tagline “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans” – a play on words that combines American Eagle denim with the genetic traits that gave Sweeney her famously voluptuous figure.
Some spots are more direct, specifically talking about her genetic background.
“Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color,” Sweeney says in one clip. “My jeans are blue.”
Sweeney has been a highly successful partner for several brands since becoming one of the breakout stars on HBO’s teen drama Euphoria in 2019. For example, earlier this year, the 27-year-old actress turned heads for a little-known soap company called Dr. Squatch by selling bars of soap mixed with her personal bathwater.
Depending on who you ask, the American Eagle ads are simply an example of a brand capitalizing on Sweeney’s star power to connect with consumers — or they’re a modern example of offensive race-based messaging.
What were the criticisms?
Criticism of the ads from online commentators began pouring in almost immediately after American Eagle posted the first video online last week. The nature of the comments varies, but in general the main complaint is that the ad – which celebrates the genes/jeans of a white, blonde, blue-eyed actress – sends the message that certain types of heritage are better than others.
“It says that Sydney Sweeney has a great body, and therefore great genes, and therefore is a product of genetic superiority,” said content creator Jess Britvich in a video on TikTok that has been viewed nearly 3 million times.
Other social media users have gone so far as to call the ad Nazi propaganda, or a means to promote white supremacy.
As the debate gained momentum, cultural commentators at some of America’s largest news outlets began offering their own, more nuanced views.
“She embodies the almost mythological girl-next-door, beautiful yet high-maintenance sexy femininity that dominated the media in the 1990s and early 2000s,” MSNBC producer Hannah Holland wrote. “Together, the campaign feels regressive and not retro, offensive and not brutal.”
And what is the criticism of the criticism?
Cheung is not the only figure on the political right to condemn the ad’s critics. Republican Senator Ted Cruz responded to
In the eyes of many conservatives, the response to Sweeney’s ad is a typical example of what they see as the left’s extreme oversensitivity to even the most uninteresting topics.
“A blonde, blue-eyed actress talking about jeans — or even genes — is just a play on words, not a secret salute to white supremacy,” New York Times opinion writer John McWhorter wrote on Tuesday.
Popular conservative commentator Charlie Kirk denounced what he called the “ridiculous overreaction” to an ad that, in his opinion, is “nowhere offensive.”
Why is this a problem at all?
The controversy over the American Eagle commercial has raised the deeper question of whether these are the kinds of things we as a culture should be fighting about at all. In the eyes of some commentators, the entire episode is a troubling symptom of how even largely inconsequential issues like a jeans commercial enter an endless cycle of outrage that renders the possibility of substantive discussion impossible.
“What ends up happening in these scenarios is that everyone gets very angry, in a way that allows for a hint of moral superiority and is also good for online content creation,” Charlie Warzel, a staff writer for the Atlantic, wrote on Tuesday. “The Sweeney ad, like any good discourse, allows anyone to exploit a political and cultural moment for different purposes.”
Cover thumbnail photo: American Eagle via YouTube
