Cheryl Hines Backs Nate Bargatze After White House UFC Backlash

Nate Bargatze’s effort to quietly move past his White House UFC controversy just got more complicated.

The comic, one of the biggest stand-up draws in the country, returned to Instagram after an 11-day break following backlash over his attendance at the UFC Freedom 250 event at the White House on Donald Trump’s 80th birthday.

His reappearance came in the form of a short stand-up clip about trying to buy a hammock, but the post quickly became less about the joke than who was watching.

Cheryl Hines, whose husband is Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., publicly liked the post, after her own selfie with Bargatze, RFK Jr. and others helped bring the comic’s attendance to wider attention.

A source previously told The Daily Beast that Bargatze, 47, only attended because UFC is his “favorite sport” and that his presence was “not political.”

Fans were not all convinced. The most-liked comment on Bargatze’s latest Instagram clip asked, “Nate how was the carnival on the WH lawn?”

The reaction marked a sharp turn for Bargatze, whose clean, broadly appealing comedy helped make him the highest-grossing stand-up comic of 2024. He sold more than a million tickets, grossed $56.7 million from his tour heading into 2025, hosted the Emmys and starred in his first feature film.

“Cheryl Hines’s support probably does more to shape the narrative around Nate Bargatze than it does for her own brand,” said media and cultural analyst Kaivan Shroff.

“She is already very publicly associated with RFK Jr. and the Trump political orbit, so the bigger risk is for Bargatze, whose appeal had, in part, depended on seeming broadly likable and not especially political or partisan,” Shroff explained.

“The more visible Hines’s support of or association with him becomes, the harder it is for Bargatze to maintain the image of a comedian floating above the culture wars,” he added.

“Bargatze notably took time off social media following the backlash, which is a clear effort to let the story die down. While Hines’s like of his recent post is subtle enough to avoid the drama or scrutiny of a formal statement, it is still public enough to be noticed by fans and reporters,” Shroff noted.

“Hines’s like in that sense probably undid the work of Bargatze taking that social media break and reignited the story because here we are talking about it again,” he added. “Silence helps when a celebrity wants a controversy to burn out and even a small visible gesture can keep the story alive by making people ask what side someone is really on.”