White House officials celebrate ‘omen’ of Kentucky Derby victor: ‘Sovereignty will ALWAYS win’

White House officials celebrated on social media after a horse named Sovereignty beat out its rival Journalism at the Kentucky Derby on Saturday.

Sovereignty trailed most of the race and didn’t make a big move until near the final turn to edge out Journalism, the favorite horse going into the race, and secure the victory.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was one Trump administration official who took note of the outcome on social media.

“Sovereignty > Journalism,” Hegseth wrote. “On the track. And in 2025 America.”

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Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff, also appeared to reference the race in a social media post.

“In the Trump Administration, sovereignty will ALWAYS win,” Miller wrote.

Sovereignty, ridden by jockey Junior Alvarado, wins the 151st Kentucky Derby, Saturday, May 3, 2025, at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. (Diane Bondareff/AP Content Services for Longines)

Journalist Logan Hall called the victory a “powerful omen.”

The Trump administration is no stranger to bouts of friction with the media. 

Hegseth has been the subject of recent scrutiny after The New York Times reported that he shared details of a March military airstrike against the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen in a chat on the Signal app that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer.

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Hegseth has defended himself against the report, calling the controversy an attempt to “sabotage” President Donald Trump’s agenda.

Hegseth accused “disgruntled former employees” of “trying to save their a–” by peddling stories, arguing that the mainstream media’s focus should instead be on “the decimation of the Houthis, how [the U.S. is] pushing back the Chinese, how we have a new defense area at the southern border.”

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Miller also went head-to-head with reporters at a White House briefing last week, admonishing them over their coverage of MS-13 and Tren de Aragua violence in the U.S.

Miller accused some members of the media of trying to “shill” for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an accused MS-13 member the Trump administration deported to El Salvador.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, speaks during a press briefing at the White House on Thursday in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

He also accused the press of only covering the sexual assault and murder of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray by two alleged Tren de Aragua members in June 2024 because Trump “shamed” them.

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“Most of your papers never covered her story when it happened, to the extent that you covered it at all, it was because President Trump forced you to cover it by highlighting it repeatedly over and over again,” Miller said. “He had to shame you into covering it.”

Fox News Digital’s Taylor Penley, Diana Stancy and Ryan Morik contributed to this report.