Trump's $75K Derby ticket shows he doesn't want Kentuckians around: Opinion

Former President Donald Trump officially announced he'll be at the Kentucky Derby on May 7. And if you have $75,000 ($150,000 for couples), you get to be in his company! The 45th President of the United States' high cost for a handshake — more than $20,000 over the median income of a Kentucky household — shows his "man of the people" image is a farce.

Kentucky Sports Radio host Matt Jones posted the announcement of Trump's presence at the Derby on Thursday. The audience for the soiree hosted by Trump's political action committee, MAGA Again, will be limited to well-heeled political donors. This overture to the super-rich and well-connected in a state as poor as Kentucky is particularly ironic for the candidate who once led chants of "drain the swamp" at his rallies.

Consider, for a moment, that the former president — who won over nearly two-thirds of commonwealth voters in both 2016 and 2020 — is charging $75,000 for an individual to see him in the 40208 ZIP code, which houses Churchill Downs. Census records show that median household income in 40208 is less than $31,000. In addition to being inconvenienced by typical Derby Day traffic, the low-income residents of the area surrounding Churchill Downs may now also be potentially displaced by Secret Service agents in preparation for a visit from a former U.S. President who is making access to him all but impossible for both local residents and Kentuckians at large.

Background: Price to go to Kentucky Derby political fundraiser with Donald Trump: $75,000

This sneering, elitist display of contempt for the working class is par for the course for Trump, whose campaign left hundreds of his supporters literally out in the cold on more than one occasion during his failed re-election campaign. In Rome, Georgia, supporters who were shuttled from distant parking lots to the rally location – including many who were elderly and disabled – were left to fend for themselves in chilly temperatures after the campaign failed to pay for the shuttles to take supporters back to their cars. Supporters in Pennsylvania had to wait for hours in frigid temperatures for transportation following another campaign rally. And when Trump abandoned his supporters in Omaha, Nebraska, temperatures were so cold that several were hospitalized.

The high cost of a Trump visit doesn’t just come by pricing out working-class Kentuckians from seeing him at the Derby; Louisville taxpayers will also be on the hook, whether they support him or not. In 2020, Orlando NBC affiliate WESH found that Trump cost the city nearly $93,000 in police regular and overtime hours for a one-day campaign stop. Louisvillians expecting Trump to reimburse those costs shouldn’t hold their breath – that same year, the Center for Public Integrity reported that 14 U.S. cities were still waiting on then-President Trump’s campaign to reimburse them to the tune of $1.8 million in security-related costs.

In Hunter S. Thompson’s 1970 essay “The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved,” the legendary Louisville journalist wrote about the stark class differences prevalent at the Derby when comparing the rowdy infield partiers to the extravagantly wealthy horse owners and trainers. But even Thompson would likely be blown away at the level of indifference a visiting former president is displaying to a state full of his supporters. If Trump does indeed run for another term in 2024, Kentucky voters would do well to remember how he went out of his way to keep them at arms’ length during one of Kentucky’s biggest annual traditions.

Carl Gibson is a Kentucky native and proud graduate of Morehead State University. His work has appeared in CNN, The Guardian, The Washington Post, Barron's, Business Insider, and NPR, among other publications.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Trump's $75K Derby ticket shows he doesn't want Kentuckians around