There's at least 1 champion safe to invite to the White House. A 4-legged one.
If President Trump is looking for a way to repair his reputation with sports fans after disinviting from the White House the winners of the Super Bowl and the NBA championship, there’s at least one athlete who can be counted on not to make any unwelcome political statements: Triple Crown winner Justify.
That was the suggestion of the flamboyant former Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke, a vocal Trump supporter, in a tweet shortly after the undefeated colt won the Belmont Stakes Saturday:
.@realDonaldTrump should invite JUSTIFY to the White House lawn for winning the Triple Crown.
Justify is a WINNER like Trump who could care less about leftist identity politics.#MAGA pic.twitter.com/dXA365qx6X— David A. Clarke, Jr. (@SheriffClarke) June 10, 2018
Clarke is probably right that Justify doesn’t care about leftist identity politics. Nor has he been known to take a knee before any of his races, although the musical tradition at Triple Crown events is different from NFL games: “My Old Kentucky Home” at the Derby, “Maryland, My Maryland” at the Preakness and “New York, New York” at the Belmont. In general, the horse demographic seems to skew conservative. They have historically been employed in the military, and by police and cowboys in traditionally Republican western states..
We don’t really know about Justify’s political views; he has never given an interview. But digging into his background turns up some potentially problematic nuggets. He was bred in Kentucky, but to a stable owned by citizen of Canada, whose prime minister Trump is currently feuding with. And according to a New York Times article, a share in his (enormously lucrative) breeding rights is owned by a company controlled by a very conspicuous liberal internationalist donor, investor George Soros.
So perhaps Justify shouldn’t expect that invitation to the White House just yet. As Trump might say, we’ll have to see.
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