SAN JOSE, Calif. — Sydney Sweeney has won the approval of Donald Trump, the leader of America’s MAGA movement, after he learned that she’s a registered Republican and facing backlash from the “woke” left for starring in a controversial blue jeans ad that’s been described as “Nazi propaganda.”

The president in fact doubled down on his support for the 27-year-old actor Monday morning after she was heckled Sunday night for her “racist” American Eagle jeans campaign at the premiere of her new movie, “Americana.”

Trump wrote on Truth Social that Sweeney “has the HOTTEST ad out there” and “the jeans are flying off the shelves. Go get ’em Sydney.”

On Sunday, Trump spoke to reporters before leaving Allentown, Pennsylvania. He learned of a report that she was a registered Republican and weighed in on the American Eagle controversy, the Daily Beast reported.

“She’s a registered Republican? Now I love her ad,” Trump said. “You’d be surprised at how many people are Republicans. That’s what I wouldn’t have known, but I’m glad you told me that.”

“If Sydney Sweeney is a registered Republican, I think her ad is fantastic!” Trump added.

The “Euphoria” and “White Lotus” star listed her party affiliation as Republican in public records in Florida, The Guardian reported Sunday. She registered to vote in that state in June 2024, shortly after she bought a mansion in the Keys, The Guardian also said. Her registration also came two weeks after Trump became a convicted felon, after a jury in New York City found him guilty of falsifying business records in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through a hush money payment to a porn star who said the two had sex.

Sweeney’s American Eagle ad campaign has become the latest battlefront in America’s culture wars, with critics slamming it for being a “racialized dog whistle.” They say it promotes white supremacy and “Nazi propaganda” because its imagery and tagline praise the blond-haired, blue-eyed Sweeney for her “great jeans” — words seen as a deliberate play on the phrase “great genes.”

In one spot, Sweeney says, “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color. My jeans are blue.” In another viral clip, Sweeney is seen standing in front of a poster that reads: “Sydney Sweeney has great genes.” However the word “genes” is crossed out and replaced with “jeans.”

Trump is the latest prominent figure on the right to celebrate the ad, while others in the MAGA world are casting the backlash as a ridiculous, “crazy left” attack on an “all-American beautiful girl.”

“Now the crazy left has come out against beautiful women,” Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas wrote on X last week, while Vice President J.D. Vance questioned the political instincts of people who would get worked up over a jeans ad, the Daily Beast reported.

“My political advice to the Democrats is continue to tell everybody who thinks Sydney Sweeney is attractive is a Nazi,” Vance said on a podcast on Friday.

“That appears to be their actual strategy,” Vance continued. “I mean, it actually reveals something pretty interesting about the Dems though, which is that you have a normal all-American beautiful girl doing like a normal jeans ad. They’re trying to sell jeans to kids in America and they have managed to so unhinge themselves over this thing. And it’s like, you guys, did you learn nothing from the November 2024 election?”

Sweeney has not responded to the criticism, even as some of her left-leaning critics say the ad confirms their suspicions that she’s long had alt-right tendencies. She and American Eagle also have been accused of promoting eugenics, the manipulation of reproduction in the human population to increase heritable characteristics that are more desirable.

American Eagle issued a brief statement on Friday, saying that the “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans” ad campaign has “always” been only about the jeans, the Daily Beast reported. “Her jeans. Her story,” the company said. “Great jeans look good on everyone.”

Marketing and PR experts interviewed by the usually right-leaning Daily Mail disagreed that the ad is just about jeans. The job of these experts is to pay close attention to strategies around “optics” and “messaging,” and they pointed out the not-very-“subtle,” “racial overtones” of the ad, of which Sweeney is a willing participant.

Las Vegas-based publicist Alexandria Hurley told the Daily Mail that the ad and its tagline were “deliberately” provocative.

“From a PR perspective, what we’re seeing from Sydney Sweeney isn’t a ‘misstep’ or ‘Pepsi moment.’ It’s a calculated brand evolution,” Hurley told the Daily Mail. “Sydney has flirted with controversy before … and rather than walk it back after criticism, she’s leaned further in. That’s not oversight. That’s strategy.”

For Sweeney, her “strategy” is to build a certain kind of celebrity, Hurley said. “This is a play for attention, not respectability. She’s embracing a kind of polarizing, headline-generating persona — and for now, it’s working. It has people talking, and brands who care more about reach than responsibility may still line up.”

But Hurley and other PR and marketing experts said it’s a gamble for a rising star like Sweeney to try to be controversial, instead of being respected or liked to as broad a fanbase as possible.

“In agreeing to this campaign, she showed that for the right price, she was willing to ignore the values of her diverse, young fan base,” Alexandria Hammond, principal at BrandNEWS PR Consulting Firm, also told the Daily Mail. “Bottom line: She sold out.”

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