Sovereignty Captures 2025 Kentucky Derby
Sovereignty triumphed in a rain-soaked 2025 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, overcoming tough conditions and a competitive field.
WASHINGTON – It was a good day for Sovereignty, a bad day for Journalism and a day of celebration for members of the Trump administration.
Two of President Donald Trump’s top aides cheered when Sovereignty rallied down the stretch and beat the favorite, Journalism, to win the 151st Kentucky Derby.
“In the Trump administration, Sovereignty will ALWAYS win,” Stephen Miller, Trump’s homeland security adviser, wrote on X.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News personality who has feuded with the press amid reports that he shared sensitive military information through an unsecured channel, offered his own commentary on the Derby finish.
“Sovereignty > Journalism,” he tweeted. “On the track. And in 2025 America.”
Neither Miller nor Hegseth mentioned an important detail: Junior Alvarado, the jockey who rode Sovereignty to victory, is from Venezuela.
Alvarado’s win comes as the Trump administration has zeroed in on many Venezuelan migrants in the United States. He notched the victory just two days after the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to intervene in its bid to strip temporary protected status for more than 300,000 Venezuelan migrants, a move that would clear the way for their deportation.
The jockey moved to the United States in 2007, before former President Joe Biden designated Venezuelans eligible for temporary protected status.
The Justice Department asked the justices to put on hold a federal judge’s order that halted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s decision to terminate the temporary legal status previously granted to some Venezuelans.
The administration has deported hundreds of Venezuelans to El Salvador, arguing these individuals are members of a gang called Tren De Aragua and that they were expelled from the United States because of national security concerns.
Relatives and lawyers of many of the men deported deny they were Tren de Aragua members and say the deportees were not given the chance to contest the administration’s allegations.
Contributing: Reuters
Follow Michael Collins on X @mcollinsNEWS