Beneath a pink “Make America Hot Again” projection of an animated Sydney Sweeney in American Eagle jeans, New York City conservatives, many dressed in denim to match, mingled Thursday night at a dating party in Lower Manhattan.
On the rooftop of Hotel Chantelle on the trendy Lower East Side, the predominantly male crowd, ranging from their mid-twenties to early-forties, joined other “like-minded” suitors at a “Good Genes” party—a play on Sweeney’s ad campaign that set off the latest skirmish in the culture wars.
“Sometimes I just like being a troll,” Make America Hot Again host Raquel Debono told Newsweek hours ahead of the event. “Literally the reason I’m hosting this ‘good genes’ party is because I just genuinely find it fun to troll. I just actually wanted to piss people off,” she added.
At 29, Debono has carved out her own niche within the MAGA movement as an outspoken conservative living in a deep-blue city. Debono wields a growing social media following, fresh off her split in May from Date Right Stuff—the conservative dating app launched in 2022 by former Trump aide John McEntee. She told Newsweek that her politics have often felt “all over the place,” never fully at home with the new right, but also definitely not among liberals, either.
She draws fire from both ends of the spectrum, sparring with “tradwives” and other hardline conservative women who call out her for being single, not particularly religious and, in their critique, too weak on transgender issues. Debono said she felt out of place when she went to a conference hosted by Turning Point USA, the nonprofit run by MAGA firebrand Charlie Kirk that has become something of a gathering place for young right-wingers.
“I was actually terrified,” she recalled. “I genuinely don’t belong here.”
Debono said she’s also been targeted by the left. “ Like everyone thinks like, oh, she’s being racist, bigot, homophobic. I don’t know what you people are talking about. I just wanna say what I want, when I want, I wanna pay less taxes. I wanna spend more money on the things that I want to spend more money on. It’s just not that serious,” she told Newsweek.
“I see crazy people on all sides and I think they all need to chill.”
An admirer of President Trump, whom she calls her “favorite stand-up comedian,” Debono believes that politics shouldn’t be treated so seriously by either side.
“Everything is just like a bit to me,” she said with a laugh.
Dating as a NYC Conservative
As the era of so-called “closeted conservatism” recedes in Trump’s second term, New York City’s right-leaning singles are taking advantage of a dating pool that belies the city’s reputation as being hostile for young Republicans. With tickets going for $44 apiece, more than 70 people turned out for Thursday’s party—some in “Dark MAGA” caps, others in denim fits or decked out in post-work business casual, and one donning a red, white, and blue Hawaiian shirt emblazoned with Trump’s face.
Several attendees told Newsweek that parties like this feel easier, offering a space where they’re no longer “walking on eggshells” or pressured to “self-censor.” Even still, most of the partygoers asked to remain anonymous or off the record, with some citing a general distrust of the media.
While politics flickered in the background—both in conversation, from jokes about the Sweeney campaign, and physically, courtesy of the harsh light coming from the Fox News cameras trawling the space for a segment — many revelers told Newsweek the real draw wasn’t policy talk at all, but the relief of knowing everyone was starting from similar, shared values.
Jack Wells, 30, told Newsweek from the rooftop overlooking Manhattan that dating has shifted noticeably under the new administration, with politics surfacing earlier in conversation and carrying more weight than before.
Those with right-leaning political beliefs are “more upfront than they used to be,” he said, even as dating apps have created a new de facto filter for those who see a potential mate’s opposing views as a “dealbreaker.” He recalled receiving an automated prompt from some matches that read, simply: “Unmatch if you’re conservative.”
Many in the group voiced fatigue with the dating app scene — a sentiment not at all exclusive to conservatives. Some cited bad matches and dull first dates, and said they’re turning back to the age-old strategy of actually meeting people in person. If they can chat and flirt over shared politics, all the better.
One woman Newsweek spoke to said she identifies as “moderate” on the dating apps, echoing a similar refrain throughout the night that “city conservatives” tend to be far less socially conservative than, say, Texas Republicans or the MAGA firebreathers who populate social media discourse. She noted that calling herself “moderate” can complicate the prospect of dating liberal men, explaining that while she’s open to them, they often fail to reciprocate.
Another partygoer, a 29-year-old Manhattan man who asked not to be named, said a past relationship with a liberal woman had soured him on pursuing relationships with women on the left. He recalled feeling unable to “really fully be myself,” often worrying that “I would be judged.”
Debono echoed this sentiment earlier, telling Newsweek that after dating a liberal, she’s now more convinced she needs a conservative partner.
“I can’t,” she said. “Like, I’ve received a lecture—you make the wrong joke and suddenly it’s Islamophobic, homophobic, and racist all in the same sentence. And it’s just like, I can’t do this.”
Liberals have become “the party of the hall monitors,” she said. “They’re always policing your speech.”
Two other attendees, Polish podcasters Tom Winiarski and Mikołaj Teperek, said they don’t necessarily rule out dating liberals, but bemoaned the prospect of “self-censorship.” Self-avowed communists, though, are a “red flag.”
The Warsaw-based duo partially timed their U.S. trip around the “Good Genes” party, making up for missing the infamous Make America Hot Again inauguration bash in Washington D.C. that was featured in a much-discussed New York magazine cover story. Teperek framed a copy of the issue, which dubbed the soiree, “The Cruel Kids’ Table.”
Despite the MAGA overlay, not everyone at the party was a Trump supporter. Two attendees told Newsweek they had backed then-Vice President Kamala Harris, including Mo, a 27-year-old Iraqi immigrant living in New Jersey.
Mo said he couldn’t originally get behind Trump’s tariff agenda and foreign policy, which he described as “drunken kung fu”—mimicking someone swinging wildly—though, he admitted, it has “somehow landed okay.”
Asked why he came to a dating event marketed toward conservatives, he said it was a no-brainer. He is looking for a partner with an open mind, and hasn’t found that among the liberal women he has dated.
Another male attendee, a 33-year-old tech founder from D.C., identified himself as a liberal, a term he believes has been “corrupted.” His reason for attending the party also had little to do with politics. Conservative women are just better looking, he said.
While many arrived hoping for romantic sparks, the night yielded more mingling than matches — though Debono said she was aware of a bunch of dates that have come out of her parties.
Unlike the inauguration bash, there was no merchandise, monogrammed “Make America Hot Again” swag, or Trump paraphernalia scattered around the bar. To the extent the party was branded at all, it came by way of the online invitation, where the description played off the American Eagle campaign: “They say good jeans never go out of style…But some things run even deeper. Like tradition. Discipline. And the innate ability to spot a liberal from fifty feet away. Conservatives have good genes. And we’re throwing a party to prove it.”
Debono said Thursday’s gathering marked her eighth Make America Hot Again party, with earlier editions co-hosted with Date Right Stuff and The Murray Hill Guy, a popular anonymous X account. The Canadian-born organizer said the mixers will go on, but she’s already thinking about her next venture.
“My next thing is actually going to be Make America Funny Again,” she said with a smile.
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