Sydney Sweeney, Hollywood’s newest bombshell – and the most Googled actress in the world – has a knack for attracting never-ending publicity and controversy.
Some of it has been squarely based around her phenomenal sex appeal, but quite a lot of the controversies which have dogged her rise to fame have been about politics and political affiliations.
Indeed the 28-year-old is something of a lightning rod in America’s culture wars.
In 2022 she was accused of belonging to a family of Trump supporters when pictures emerged from her mother Lisa’s 60th birthday party with guests wearing red ‘MAGA’ hats reading: ‘Make Sixty Great Again’.
Some were also wearing ‘Blue Lives Matter’ T-shirts in an apparently flippant response to the Black Lives Matter movement.
Sydney tried to brush off the furore that followed with a tweet saying: ‘You guys this is wild. An innocent celebration for my mom’s milestone 60th birthday has turned into an absurd political statement, which was not the intention. Please stop making assumptions.’
Note that she didn’t say that she and her family are not Republicans.
Sydney Sweeney’s brother Trent was caught remonstrating with anti-Trump demonstrators in resurfaced footage (the pair are pictured at a family party in 2022)
Sydney, Hollywood’s newest bombshell, has a knack for attracting never-ending publicity and controversy and now it’s been revealed that her brother filed a police complaint after clashing with anti-Trump supporters
Trent filed a report of assault in connection to a video in which he clashed with a group of anti-Trump protestors, including a petite woman, carrying a small dog, who seemed to push his arm away while he was filming the altercation
Last year it emerged that she had registered as a Republican voter in Florida in 2024 after buying a holiday house there, a few months before Donald Trump won a second American presidency. She made no comment on that, either.
Then, there was that now infamous ‘great jeans’ advert for American Eagle denim last year, which some decried as racist, but which President Trump loved, describing it the ‘the hottest ad ever’.
After calling the President’s endorsement of the advert ‘surreal’ Sydney once again tried shut down the conversation.
Tried and failed: the online backlash was vociferous and vicious. One poster on social media called her ‘3rd Reich Barbie’ and another observed: ‘Pretty soon even her breasts won’t be able to keep her career afloat’.
American Eagle quickly responded to the notion that campaign was racist, with a statement on Instagram, saying it ‘is and always was about the jeans. Her jeans. Her story. We continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way. Great jeans look good on everyone.’
Of course, Sydney Sweeney is entitled to whatever political opinions she chooses, as is her family.
But in the middle of all the ambiguity and obfuscation, there’s one matter the Daily Mail can clear up, exclusively.
At least one member of her family is – or at least once were – fervently pro-Trump, most notably her younger brother Trent, who is now a decorated Air Force staff sergeant, and presently based at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk.
Sydney has been confirmed as a Republican voter – but fans have long since spotted signs as to her political affiliations. Pictured with her mother and grandmother
Sydney came under fire when she threw a surprise party for her mum’s 60th, where guests were wearing MAGA-style hats and ‘Blue Lives Matter’ shirts (pictured: guests at the party)
In 2018, when he was a student at Gonzaga University, in the family’s home town, Spokane, in Washington, Trent Sweeney ended up in a scuffle while marching with a group of Trump supporters.
He’d joined the protestors, some wearing masks and carrying flags and pro-Trump banners, during a visit to the city by Vice President Mike Pence.
The group, shouting ‘Trump Trump Trump’, clashed with a group of anti-Trump protestors who had set up the famous ‘Baby Trump’ blimp.
Later that day 19-year-old Trent filed a report of assault to the local police, along with video footage he’d recorded.
The Daily Mail has reviewed it and it shows Trent Sweeney having a very brief altercation with a petite female anti-Trump protestor who had yelled at him to remove his phone from her face.
In his statement to police, Sweeney claims that he was ‘just walking by’ but in truth the footage clearly demonstrates that he was part of an organised pro-Trump group, who, like their counterparts, had set out to make a stand for their political beliefs.
The footage opens with Trent Sweeney filming the group standing next to the highway, as cars go by honking their horns. The occupant of one car rolls down his window to give them the middle finger, to which one pro-Trump protestor yells: ‘Which outhouse did you graduate from?’
As they reach the anti-Trump protestors, one of the pro Trump group has his MAGA hat knocked off. Trent Sweeney shouts: ‘Hey! Hey! Did you tip his hat?’ A voice replies: ‘Do you want me to tip yours?’
Sweeney then says: ‘Hey hey hey hey, that’s assault’ as a petite woman, carrying a small dog, seems to push his arm away from her while he is filming, telling him to ‘Get the **** out of my face’.
There appears to be tussle, and then the footage ends.
It’s said that her co-star in Euphoria, Zendaya, avoided her on set when they were filming the new season as a result of her apparent right wing affiliations (pictured at the 2022 Emmys)
A report on the ‘simple assault’ from Office Bieber-Brown filed on October 2nd 2018, records how Sweeney reported how a woman in her 40s had grabbed his hand to try and take his phone and a second had twisted his arm.
As to whether Trent Sweeney was acting that day as a Trump provocateur, the officer notes in his report that Sweeney told him: ‘On that day he had elected to participate first hand in the American experiment of democracy and walk to the protest surrounding the visit of Vice President Pence.’
According to the report, the officer tells him: ‘People in Spokane have sharply negative reactions to having phones shoved in their faces,’ to which Trent replies: ‘I didn’t put the phone in her face, I was just walking by and had the phone with me.’
Police later confirmed no one was charged over the incident.
What you make of the incident may depend on your political persuasions, but it does appear to demonstrate that Sydney’s brother is, or was that day, a big Trump fan.
The two Sweeney siblings were raised in an outdoorsy, religious household on the border of Idaho and Washington.
Father Steven worked for a medical company and mum Lisa was a criminal lawyer who worked her way up to become the assistant attorney general in Washington state before giving up her law career to care for her young children.
It appears that this was a family where Republican values largely held sway. Sydney’s paternal grandmother Sherry posted a picture of the whole clan, Sydney included, gathered around the stars and stripes on Facebook in 2017, with the caption ‘I stand for the flag, I kneel for the cross’.
Her attempts to back away from politics, and shield those of her family, have often come across poorly. Late last year, controversy raged over the ‘Sydney Sweeney has great jeans’ ad
Other pictures, without Sydney, show the family with stars and stripes deck chairs on the lawn.
A year later Sydney was starting a make a name for herself in the acting world. Having spent a decade as a child actor in guest roles on shows like Grey’s Anatomy and Pretty Little Liars, she received an Emmy nomination for her role in the 2019 high school drama, Euphoria, and also appeared in first season of the highly acclaimed series, White Lotus.
Her attempts to back away from politics, and shield those of her family, have often come across poorly.
Late last year, as controversy raged over the ‘Sydney Sweeney has great jeans’ advert, she said in an interview that she simply loved jeans, and wanted people to concentrate on her as an actress.
That didn’t impress. The Downton Abbey actor Dan Stevens shared a post saying ‘not having a stance on white supremacy is 100% having a stance on white supremacy’.
Aimee Lou Wood – who followed in her footsteps by starring in The White Lotus – made her thoughts on Sweeney plain by sharing a vomiting emoji.
It’s said that her co-star in Euphoria, Zendaya, avoided her on set when they were filming the new season as a result of her apparent right wing affiliations.
Her PR has definitely not been helped by a serious romance with music mogul Scooter Braun, who is vilified by all Taylor Swift fans – exactly the young audience who she might otherwise hope to attract to watch her TV shows and films.
Her PR has definitely not been helped by a serious romance with music mogul Scooter Braun, who is vilified by all Taylor Swift fans (pictured in October)
She and Braun met at Jeff Bezos’ wedding to Lauren Sanchez in Venice last June. Sources say they exchanged numbers, and after returning to Los Angeles, quietly started dating.
By September things were becoming serious and they spent Thanksgiving together and also had a holiday at her house in the Florida Keys with her family.
But Braun has PR issues of his own. He famously bought the master rights to Taylor Swifts old songs when he acquired her former record label in 2019 for $300 million.
Swift claimed to be blindsided by this and accused Braun of ‘incessant, manipulative bullying’, before buying the master rights to her songs back in May last year for a deal reportedly worth $360 million.
She also re-recorded new versions of her back catalogue to make sure that he didn’t profit from the deal.
His association with Justin Bieber, another artist with a huge young following, also also ended badly. They went their separate ways after 15 years as manager and client in 2023 and this year it was reported that Bieber had agreed to pay him $31.5million (£24million) for cancelled shows and commissions.
All of which means that the reports about their romance are greeted with disgust in many corners of the internet.
When Braun turned up to Sydney’s 28th birthday party – along with Jeff Bezos, Ashton Kutcher and the musician Diplo – one headline writer said that the party ‘predictably brought together the worst people in the world’.
Does it matter to her professionally if there is a slice of the population who can’t stand her? Her movie, The Housemaid, with Amanda Seyfried, has been a big hit
Does it matter to her professionally if there is a slice of the population who can’t stand her? Certainly, the boxing film Christy flopped hard at the box office last year, but this year her movie, The Housemaid, with Amanda Seyfried, has been a big hit and Sweeney is going to make a sequel to it.
She’s about to start making a film, Scandalous, depicting the real-life secret romance between Hollywood star Kim Novak and Sammy Davis Junior, in which she she plays Novak and British actor David Johnsson plays her lover.
That could help to dispel the ‘eugenics’ overtones of the American Eagle campaign, and she is clearly trying not to engage with those who want to make her a MAGA sweetheart.
But – just like her brother marching across the road to engage with his political enemies – could it be that the controversy is going to find her anyway?
