Sydney Sweeney Reflects On That MAGA Hoedown Controversy

Last summer, Euphoria actress Sydney Sweeney threw a “surprise hoedown” in Idaho for her mother’s 60th birthday. Pics posted to social media featured multiple guests wearing Blue Lives Matter shirts and MAGA-style hats that said “Make Sixty Great Again,” which resulted in some online backlash. Did Sydney have Trump supporter family members? Did she knowingly throw a MAGA-themed party?

At the time, Sydney responded to the criticism by tweeting that “an innocent celebration” had turned into “an absurd political statement.” She asked her followers to “please stop making assumptions.” A few months later, Sydney told British GQ that she didn’t feel there was anything she could say that would “help the conversation”: “It’s been turning into a wildfire, and nothing I can say will take it back to the correct track.”

Now, in a new interview with Variety, Sydney is once again addressing the incident. Unprompted, the 25-year-old actress tells the interviewer that her father, Steven, didn’t even attend her mom’s party (wait, were we all targeting Steven Sweeney?). She says that there were “so many interpretations” about the hoedown. Those MAGA-hat wearers? They weren’t even members of her family. Heck, they were just LGBTQIA+ allies from California trying to make fun of Idaho, one of the reddest states in the country:

“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.”

Sydney says that it’s “fascinating” to watch people build someone up and then tear them down. She adds: “Three years ago, I was going to college just like everybody else. And all of a sudden, I’m not a human anymore.”

Here’s an image from Sydney’s Variety photoshoot. Finally! A magazine giving the people what they really want: a bikini-clad actress sitting on a giant block of ice like it’s a toilet.