It’s not Sydney Sweeney’s first political firestorm: A look back at when her mom’s 60th birthday party went viral
Sweeney’s political allegiance is grabbing headlines in the U.S. and beyond - and it’s not the first time the actor has been enveloped in such a storm.
Sydney Sweeney’s political leanings are dominating the conversation - not for the first time in the Hollywood actor’s career.
Sweeney‘s GOP affiliation revealed
On Saturday, BuzzFeed reported that Sweeney is a registered Republican, having signed up to the conservative political party just months before Donald Trump secured a return as U.S. president.
“According to publicly available voter registration records that BuzzFeed viewed, Sydney has been registered to the Republican Party of Florida since June 2024,” the media outlet said.
In November 2024, GOP candidate Trump secured a second term in the White House by defeating Democratic vice-president Kamala Harris in the presidential election.
News of Sweeney’s apparent Republican ties came just days after she faced a backlash over a controversial advertising campaign that has been criticized by social-media users for allegedly “push[ing] racial hierarchies”.
American Eagle ad slammed - but Trump loves it
Sweeney has appeared in a series of ads for the clothing company American Eagle, which has used a slogan that talks up her “great jeans”. The tagline revolves around a word play that draws on the homophonous relationship between “jeans” and “genes”.
On X, one internet user wrote: “Getting a blue eyed, blonde, white women [sic] and focusing your campaign around her having perfect genetics feels weird, especially considering the current state of America.”
Since he took office as president in January, Trump has issued a series of executive orders aimed at ending diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the U.S.
The 79-year-old’s administration has also aggressively gone after migrants, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents accused of carrying out deportation raids that target people in public spaces “on the basis of their skin color”.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Trump said of Sweeney: “She’s a registered Republican? Oh, now I love her ad.”
Mom’s party sparks MAGA storm
The political firestorm currently enveloping Sweeney - who has so far offered no public comment on it - is not her first.
In August 2022, she attracted criticism for throwing her mother a birthday party in which attendees could be seen wearing red baseball caps in the style of the “Make America Great Again” hats favored by Trump and his supporters.
A party-goer also appeared to be sporting a T-shirt in support of “Blue Lives Matter” - a pro-police countermovement that emerged in opposition to the “Black Lives Matter” movement.
“So many misinterpretations”
Sweeney dismissed the party controversy as “wild”, writing on X at the time: “An innocent celebration for my moms [sic] milestone 60th birthday has turned into an absurd political statement, which was not the intention. Please stop making assumptions.”
The Euphoria and White Lotus star has insisted that the caps - which actually read “Make Sixty Great Again” - were intended as a joke. “There were so many misinterpretations," she told an interview with Variety in August 2023.
“The people in the pictures weren’t even my family. The people who brought the things that people were upset about were actually my mom’s 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.” (Idaho is a heavily pro-Trump state, having overwhelmingly voted for him in the 2016, 2020 and 2024 presidential elections.)
“People are so fast to build someone up, and then they love tearing them down,” Sweeney concluded.
The 27-year-old also discussed ‘birthday party-gate’ in a November 2022 interview with the magazine British GQ.
“Honestly I feel like nothing I say can help the conversation,” Sweeney said. “It’s been turning into a wildfire and nothing I can say will take it back to the correct track.”
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