The president unveiled the Patriot Games, “an unprecedented four-day athletic event featuring the greatest high school athletes,” in a new announcement video.

Did Trump just announce a real-life Hunger Games?

The president unveiled the Patriot Games, "an unprecedented four-day athletic event featuring the greatest high school athletes," in a new announcement video.

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

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December 18, 2025 6:02 p.m. ET

Donald Trump in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 30, 2025; Jennifer Lawrence in 'The Hunger Games'. Credit:

Chip Somodevilla/Getty; Lionsgate

- President Donald Trump announced the Patriot Games as part of the United States' 250th anniversary celebration.

- The games will be "an unprecedented four-day athletic event featuring the greatest high school athletes."

- The announcement immediately drew comparisons to *The Hunger Games*.

May the odds be ever in our favor?

President Donald Trump announced a number of national festivities for the forthcoming 250th anniversary of the United States in 2026 — and one of them sounds straight out of Panem.

"In the fall, we will host the first-ever Patriot Games: an unprecedented four-day athletic event featuring the greatest high school athletes," Trump said in a YouTube announcement. "One young man and one young woman from each state and territory."

The president did not elaborate further on the Patriot Games, except to briefly include a dose of anti-transgender rhetoric. "I promise there will be no men playing in women's sports," he claimed. "You're not gonna see that. You'll see everything but that."

The news came as part of Trump's broader announcement of Freedom 250, a new "public-private partnership" tasked with organizing various events celebrating the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Donald Trump in New York City on Jan. 11, 2024.

Shannon Stapleton-Pool/Getty

The Freedom 250 website describes the Patriot Games as "celebrating excellence, teamwork, and American pride," while the related America250 site says that the "inspiring" event will celebrate "discipline, sportsmanship, and teamwork while uplifting the diverse talents of America’s youth and shining a light on the next generation of leaders."

Critics immediately recognized the parallels between the Patriot Games and Suzanne Collins' *The Hunger Games* series, which also featured one young man and one young woman from each of the nations "Districts" facing off in an annual athletic competition. (*The Hunger Games*' competition is a survival-of-the-fittest event where the kids all murder one another, which likely isn't the same parameters as the Patriot Games…but until we have more information on the real-life event, we can't officially rule it out.)

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The official X account for the Democratic Party reacted to the news by posting a clip from the first *Hunger Games* movie in which the villainous President Coriolanus Snow (Donald Sutherland) explains the concept of the titular games.

"And so it was decreed that each year, the various districts of Panem would offer up, in tribute, one young man and woman to fight to the death in a pageant of honor, courage, and sacrifice," Snow says in the clip. "The lone victor, bathed in riches, would serve as a reminder of our generosity and our forgiveness. This is how we remember our past. This is how we safeguard our future."

Jennifer Lawrence in 'The Hunger Games'. Murray Close/Lionsgate

Governor JB Pritzker of Illinois also compared the announcement to *The Hunger Games*, posting a still from the 2012 movie featuring Snow toasting a champagne glass in response to a post about the Patriot Games.

Trump also announced a number of other 2026 events in the same video, including a "Great American State Fair on the National Mall;" a "major prayer event" in the capital "to rededicate our country as one nation, under God;" and, of course, "a one-of-a-kind UFC event here at the White House."

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The president also excitedly announced plans for a "triumphal arc" in Washington, D.C. "We are the only major city, we are the only major capital, we are the only major place without a triumphal arc, a beautiful triumphal arc," he claimed. "One like in Paris where they have the great and beautiful arc. They call it the Arc de Triumph, and we're gonna have one in Washington, D.C., very soon. Construction will start in the very near future."

*The Hunger Games* series will continue with its sixth installment, the prequel *Sunrise on the Reaping*, which hits theaters on Nov. 20. Just in time for the Patriot Games!

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