A hockey game in Denver, some affectionate Instagram photos, and a Daily Mail anonymous source — that’s all it took for the internet to decide that Bella Hadid, one of the most visible celebrity advocates for Palestinian rights, had become a MAGA girlfriend. Her new boyfriend, Nathan Lacy, is a 38-year-old Colorado businessman from a reportedly conservative Catholic family. His sister follows Trump on Instagram. And Hadid showed up with platinum-blonde hair. For some, that was enough.
Who Is Nathan Lacy, and Where Does the Conservative Label Come From?
Nathan Lacy is not a political figure. He’s a fifth-generation resident of Crested Butte, Colorado, who works as an estimator and project manager for his family’s construction company, Lacy Construction. His family has deep roots in ranching and horse training — which is actually how he and Hadid reportedly share common ground, given her years of involvement in equestrian culture.
The ‘MAGA’ framing traces back to a single anonymous source quoted by the Daily Mail, describing his family as ‘strongly Catholic, politically conservative and Republican-leaning.’ On top of that, social media users flagged that his sister, Rachael Lacy — who is also a friend of Hadid’s — follows Donald Trump and other prominent Republican figures on Instagram. That is the totality of the evidence. No verified reporting establishes that Nathan Lacy personally supports Trump, the MAGA movement, or any specific conservative policies. Following your family’s politics on social media and sharing those politics are not the same thing — a distinction the viral commentary mostly skipped. how celebrity relationships become political symbols
What Bella Hadid Has Actually Said and Done for Palestine
Before this story was about Nathan Lacy, it was about Bella Hadid‘s record — and that record is substantive. Hadid, whose father is Palestinian-American, has used her platform consistently and at real professional cost. In May 2021, she marched at a pro-Palestinian demonstration in New York City. At the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, she wore a dress incorporating a traditional Palestinian keffiyeh design, drawing international attention and backlash in equal measure.
That same year, Adidas cut her from an advertising campaign following controversy over imagery connected to the 1972 Munich Olympics. She didn’t walk it back. She reaffirmed her support for Palestinian rights while explicitly condemning antisemitism. Losing a major brand contract to hold a political position is not the behavior of someone performing activism for aesthetic reasons. This is relevant context because the ‘MAGA girlfriend’ narrative implicitly suggests her advocacy was always superficial — and the evidence doesn’t support that.
The Blonde Wig, the Aesthetic Police, and What We’re Really Arguing About
The photographs that sent the internet into overdrive showed Hadid at a Colorado Avalanche Hockey Fights Cancer game on November 7, 2026, wearing platinum-blonde hair and heavier makeup than her usual look. Comparisons to Ivanka Trump, Vanessa Trump, and conservative influencer Erika Kirk spread quickly. Hadid clarified that the blonde hair was a Halloween wig. A wig. The cultural shorthand of ‘MAGA girlfriend aesthetics’ — blonde, tan, done-up — did a lot of ideological heavy lifting based on a temporary costume.
What this controversy is really exposing is a demand that women who hold public political positions perform those positions visually at all times, in every relationship, through every aesthetic choice. Hadid’s previous relationship with professional equestrian Adan Banuelos prompted similar commentary — that she’d ‘become’ a rodeo girl, adopted his identity, lost herself. The pattern in those takes is not about Hadid’s politics. It’s about the discomfort audiences feel when a woman doesn’t present as a legible, consistent brand. Hadid’s equestrian involvement predates both Banuelos and Lacy. Her Palestinian advocacy has never been retracted. The evidence for a political transformation is a wig and an anonymous tip — and that should be the story.
- Bella Hadid’s pro-Palestinian activism timeline