Emmy-Nominated Comedian Exposed as MAGA at Trump’s UFC Fight
The comedian appeared on the “Fox & Friends” sofa last month.
Cheryl Hines / Instagram
America’s top-selling stand-up comic has been busted rubbing shoulders with MAGA royalty at Donald Trump’s 80th birthday bash UFC fight.
Nate Bargatze, who has hosted Saturday Night Live twice, had largely escaped the limelight at the dizzying spectacle at the White House on Sunday until Cheryl Hines, the wife of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., uploaded a snap of the trio together on Instagram, with Vice President JD Vance in the background.
Bargatze, though, posted nothing to his 3.1 million Instagram followers. It was crickets over on X, too, with no mention of his weekend foray into the heart of MAGA.
Bargatze, to Trump’s left, as the president walks to his ringside seat.
Amber Searls/Imagn Images via Reuters Connect
The comedian, who fronted SNL in October 2023 and for a second time in October 2024, is reeling from a barrage of negative reviews for his film The Breadwinner. The Guardian said Bargatze had made an “unconvincing bid for movie stardom in a largely unfunny and old-fashioned feature-length sitcom episode.”
Variety called the humor “dated”; the Roger Ebert website gave the effort half a star and dubbed it “ghastly,” while the New York Times was slightly more favorable, calling Bargatze a “savvy writer and performer.”
Nate Bargatze is one of the country’s most successful stand-up comedians.
CBS via Getty Images
Trump’s birthday cage fight event, meanwhile, got off to a stuttered start. The fights, scheduled to begin at 8 p.m., were delayed an hour to 9 p.m. due to severe weather warnings.
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Over 4,000 attendees gathered at the arena on the White House South Lawn for the seven-fight card. Guests include many members of Trump’s family, while many celebrities reportedly received invitations declined to attend.
Many members of Trump’s inner circle were in attendance, including Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and Kennedy.
President Trump watched the cage-fighting gala from ringside.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was among the other well-known figures to bend the knee at the event after pivoting his whole company to the right over the last year, in an effort to ingratiate himself with MAGAworld.
And another notable guest was 58-year-old “DoorDash grandma” Sharon Simmons, who grabbed headlines when she delivered a McDonald’s meal to Trump at the White House in a tacky PR stunt in April.
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