Sydney Sweeney claps back after she was dragged for lack of response to jeans ad controversy

Sydney Sweeney was involved in one of the biggest pop culture controversies of the year after her American Eagle jeans advert generated such backlash that even President Trump spoke out about it. In many cases, it was a fall from grace for Sydney Sweeney who had often batted off right wing allegations during her rise to the a-list – where she’s seen critical acclaim for her roles in Euphoria, Immaculate and now upcoming boxing biopic Christy. Sydney Sweeney never spoke out once or released a statement regarding the American Eagle jeans controversy, but now she has and she firmly claps back at critics who came down hard on her. Perhaps not in the best way, and the reaction still is not great.

‘Sydney Sweeney has great jeans’

The original saga, which saw American Eagle run with the tagline ‘Sydney Sweeney has great jeans’ got major backlash because critics said the play on ‘jeans’ with ‘genes’ and using a blonde haired blue eyed woman for the campaign implied and promoted eugenics and white supremacy.

It created a huge saga with a lot of right wing political figures getting involved, especially after allegations Sydney Sweeney registered as a Republican in 2024. President Donald Trump said “She’s a registered Republican? Oh, now I love her ad! You’d be surprised at how many people are Republicans … If Sydney Sweeney is a registered Republican, I think her ad is fantastic!”

After previously always declining to comment on the controversy, including as recently as September, Sydney Sweeney claps back at the jeans controversy in a new interview with GQ where she says “I’ve always believed that I’m not here to tell people what to think.”

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“I know who I am. I know what I value. I know that I’m a kind person. I know that I love a lot, and I know that I’m just excited to see what happens next. And so I don’t really let other people define who I am.”

Whilst maintaining she wears jeans constantly, she said “it didn’t affect me one way or the other.” She said it was “surreal” having the President and VP JD Vance speak on the matter but said she avoided the controversy because she was busy filming and didn’t go on her phone.

“I was filming every day. I’m filming Euphoria, so I’m working 16-hour days and I don’t really bring my phone on set, so I work and then I go home and I go to sleep. So I didn’t really see a lot of it.”

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Featured image by Chelsea Lauren/Shutterstock