Featured Image Credit: Aaron Schwartz/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Topics: Donald Trump, Social Media
Phoebe Tonks
Topics: Donald Trump, Social Media
President Donald Trump has announced a brand new athletic competition entitled the ‘Patriot Games’ to mark the nation's 250th anniversary next year.
The Games, which he claims will be part of ‘the most spectacular birthday party the world has ever seen’, will see two competitors, one young man and woman from every state and territory, compete for victory.
What exactly, beyond bragging rights, the victors will actually win has yet to be revealed, but Trump has high hopes for the success of the event.
"Already, we've had big celebrations to commemorate the 250th birthdays of the Army, the Navy and the United States Marines, but there is much, much more to come," he said in a YouTube video announcement for Freedom 250, a 'national, non-partisan organization leading the Administration’s celebration of America’s 250th birthday'.
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"We're going to have a good time."
The ‘Patriot Games’ are slated to take place in fall 2026 with Trump describing the competition as 'an unprecedented four-day athletic event featuring the greatest high school athletes, one young man and one young woman from each state and territory'.
He added, "But I promise there will be no men playing in women's sports. You're not gonna see that. You'll see everything but that."
So far, further details are few and far between, but the official Freedom 250 website has teased what lies ahead as it said: "From opening heats to the live final day in front of a live audience, these competitors will light the torch for a new generation of Americans."
Now, if you’re thinking this may sound surprisingly familiar to The Hunger Games franchise, you wouldn’t be the only one, with critics on social media already having raised eyebrows at the competitive event.
For those not in the know, The Hunger Games is a dystopian book and movie franchise, in which two children from each ‘district’ take part in a survival of the fittest contest where the kids all fight to the death.
Now, as far as we know, this isn’t quite what the president has in mind, but even so, it’s got people nervous and side-eyeing Trump for his sudden stroke of apparent inspiration.
The Democratic Party itself couldn’t help but note the parallels, as it shared a clip from the first Hunger Games movie in which the villainous President Coriolanus Snow (Donald Sutherland) explains the concept of the fictional 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."
Governor JB Pritzker of Illinois also compared the announcement to The Hunger Games, when he reposted an image featuring Snow toasting a champagne glass in response to Thursday’s announcement.