Just months earlier, Kelly had praised Sweeney as MAGA’s favorite sex symbol, lauding her steamy American Eagle ad campaign that featured the slogan “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans.”

“These ads say ‘hotness is back’, and that is important in 2025,” Kelly wrote at the time. “Finally, we have an actual woman with amazing breasts and an obviously kick-a– body who is in her jeans, and it is wonderful.”

The ad campaign itself stirred major controversy, with critics accusing the brand of flirting with eugenics-era imagery, given the “jeans/genes” pun and Sweeney’s blond, blue-eyed appearance. The left decried it as a disturbing nod to “Aryan ideals”, while conservatives hailed it as a satirical jab at woke culture.

Fox News reportedly mentioned the campaign more than 180 times in four days, while White House Communications Director Steve Cheung dismissed the backlash as “cancel culture run amok”.

Vice President J.D. Vance quipped, “My political advice to the Democrats is continue to tell everybody who thinks Sydney Sweeney is attractive is a Nazi,” while Senator Ted Cruz lambasted the “crazy left” for “coming out against beautiful women.”