President Donald Trump announced the first-ever “Patriot Games” as part of a celebration of America’s 250th anniversary.
As part of the “most spectacular birthday party the world has ever seen,” Trump on Thursday unveiled events planned throughout 2026. The Washington Monument will be illuminated with festive lights, a triumphal arc will be constructed and the “Patriot Games” will commence.
The games are an “unprecedented four-day athletic event featuring the greatest high school athletes: one young man and one young woman from each state and territory,” the president said in a video message.
Some social media users compared the Patriot Games to the Hunger Games, a 2008 book by Suzanne Collins in which one boy and one girl from each district participate in a lethal competition.
“I’m sorry but is he announcing the Hunger Games?” one X user wrote.
“We asked for affordable health care and Republicans are giving us the Hunger Games,” political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen quipped.
“We’re closer to a dystopian Hunger Games future than an a utopian Star Trek one,” another remarked.
The Democrats X account quoted the iconic book directly, posting: “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." (The Hunger Games, 2012)”
In his three-minute message, Trump said that “2026 will be a celebration like no other honoring our nation and all of its glory.”
The events will be spread out throughout next year to mark “250 years of American freedom,” he said.
Other festivities include the “great American state fair,” which will feature pavilions from all 50 states on the National Mall, “highlighting breathtaking innovations and celebrating America’s exceptional history and culture,” Trump said. It will be held from June 25 to July 10.
“Frankly, you’ll never see anything like it and you’ll never see anything like it again,” he predicted.
He also mentioned building the “National Garden of American Heroes” — a garden filled with life-size statues of luminaries, such as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Muhammad Ali and Albert Einstein.
“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 said, before mentioning Paris, France’s Arc de Triomphe. Construction will start “in the very near future,” he said.
Last month, Trump told attendees at a Sunday White House Christmas reception that Domestic Policy Council boss Vince Haley’s “primary thing” is the construction of a massive triumphal arch.
Next spring, the National mall will hold a “major prayer event” to “rededicate our country as one nation under God. We’re not changing that.” On Flag Day, the White House is set to host a UFC event, hosted by Trump ally Dana White.
The president also announced the creation of a new public-private partnership called Freedom 250, which will help execute the 2026 celebratory plans.
“Working with states, companies, and organizations across the country, we will renew the patriotism, pride, and pioneering spirit of America and lay the groundwork for the next 250 years of independence and freedom. This will be a time like you’ve never had in your lives, America 250,” Trump said.
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