America’s bittersweetheart Sydney Sweeney found herself under fire once again following reports that she is dating Scooter Braun. The pair were spotted holding hands while leaving a hotel in New York together, following several other sightings over the past three months.
Braun is a polarising figure. The American record executive and businessman is best known for his public dispute with Taylor Swift over his purchase of her music catalogue. Braun’s ownership of Swift’s masters is what prompted Swift to re-record new versions of her first six albums in an attempt to devalue his assets. He recently sold the rights to these albums as part of a deal worth a reported $300 million.
Suffice to say: he is not the most beloved man in the public realm. And neither is Sweeney at the moment. In response to the news of their coupling, one user posted on X: “Just when I thought she couldn’t become more unlikeable.” The post has 17,000 likes.
This backlash comes after the Euphoria star was revealed to be a registered Republican in August due to leaked details of her political registration. There was even more backlash in July, when she featured in a highly controversial denim campaign for American Eagle, where she explained the facts of genetics while zipping up her jeans. Looking into the camera, Sweeney, 28, tells the viewer: "Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair colour, personality and even eye colour. My jeans are blue." Text on the American Eagle ad then remarks, “Sydney Sweeney has good jeans.”
The advert landed Sweeney in a heated debate about eugenics, with NPR dubbing it “the ad that launched a thousand critiques.” American Eagle have insisted it has nothing to do with eugenics and everything to do with denim.
Once Sweeney’s registered Republican status was reported, President Donald Trump got involved. “Sydney Sweeney, a registered Republican, has the HOTTEST ad out there,” he wrote in a Truth Social post on Monday. “Go get 'em Sydney!”
Speaking to reporters, he added: “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.”
In the past two years, Sweeney has become ubiquitous. Her breakout performances in HBO juggernauts Euphoria and The White Lotus catapulted her to fame, earning her Emmy nominations. She went on to star in a slew of blockbusters, including Anyone But You opposite Glen Powell, which became America’s top-grossing R-rated comedy since 2015. Most recently, she starred in the 2025 Apple TV series Echo Valley opposite Julianne Moore. She is also rumoured to be a new Bond girl, but deflected the gossip in a recent interview with Variety, saying: ‘I think I’d have more fun as James Bond.’
Despite rarely talking on topics that come within a whisker of controversy, Sweeney’s image had become incredibly politicised — long before Scooter Braun and the American Eagle advert.
Her appearance on Saturday Night Live in 2024 sparked debate purely because Sweeney made jokes about her own breasts, playing up to her stereotype in a Hooters-themed skit and joking that they’re her “backup” career.
Following the SNL appearance, Right-wing commentator Amy Hamm wrote an article for the National Post that declared Sweeney’s boobs the “double-D harbingers of the death of woke”. Hamm outlined how Sweeney’s breasts “[bulging] from her cups” were proof that we’re no longer going to be pressured into “pretending everyone is beautiful”. Instead, she eludes, we’re finally allowed to get publicly horny over the people who “actually are”.
Meanwhile, The Spectator published a similar article, entitled “Sydney Sweeney and the return of real body positivity”. “For anyone under the age of 25, they’ve likely never seen [a person like Sweeney] in their lifetime,” columnist Bridget Phetasy wrote, “as the giggling blonde with an amazing rack has been stamped out of existence, a creature shamed to the brink of extinction”.
The same sentiment has cropped up following the American Eagle backlash, with Caroline Downey declaring in The Telegraph: “The Left wants everything to be ugly. That’s why they hate Sydney Sweeney.”
While the Right have latched onto the idea that Sweeney could be the key to all of their hopes and dreams, the liberal Left, who love Sweeney for her roles in progressive queer teen drama Euphoria and wealth satire The White Lotus, are predictably aghast. Especially now it’s being reported that Sweeney is a Republican.
But Sweeney has let down the Left before. The actress was lambasted by Euphoria fans in 2023 after she attended a birthday party for her mother where guests were pictured in Make America Great Again-styled caps.
The Right were thrilled. This, combined with her “All-American” looks, made her a pretty little pin-up for white, Right-wing Americans. And while Sweeney did hit out at “assumptions” that were made about her political stance after the pictures received a backlash, she stayed conspicuously clear of disclosing her own politics.
“It’s absolutely a tactic,” says celebrity PR expert Mark Borkowski, “because as soon as you disclose that in the age of culture wars, you are cannon fodder.”
Borkowski and Gamble both compare this apolitical side of Sweeney to Taylor Swift, who famously took a long time to disclose her political stance around the 2016 election, despite incessant pleas from her fans to denounce Donald Trump. At the time, PRs and critics claimed it was due to Swift wanting to capitalise on her fandom being split between both camps, and not wanting to lose half her audience.
Eventually, in a post to Instagram, Swift admitted how she had been “reluctant” to publicly voice her political opinions in the past, “but due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now.” She went on to reveal that she was voting for a Democrat, and encouraged her fans to educate themselves and “make your vote count.” PR wise, Swift’s image didn’t take much of a hit: she’s now more famous than ever.
But Sweeney didn’t have the same luxury. Her Republican status was leaked, she didn’t have a chance to get ahead of the press, and her reputation has become even more polarised than it was before.
She has yet to address any of the recent storms — political or otherwise — she’s been caught up in. But her recent performance in the boxing biopic Christy (released in the UK on November 28) was supposed to be awards fodder. This means she’ll be on the press circuit very soon. Whether she can fight off some of the more difficult questions remains to be seen.
