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19th December 2025
09:01am GMT
Next year Americans are marking 250 years as a country, and US President Donald Trump has come up with an idea that sounds an awful lot like a real-life “Hunger Games”.
Trump announced that as part of the celebrations next year, the country will organise its first ever “Patriot Games”.
It will be “the most spectacular birthday party the world has ever seen”, Trump said as he spoke of the plans to commemorate the nation’s 250th anniversary.
The US president unveiled the plans in a video message on Thursday for the events throughout 2026, adding that 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.”
Trump also highlighted his plans to begin construction soon on a new arch monument in the nation’s capital.
He said: “We are the only major place without a triumphal arc. A beautiful triumphal arc, one like in Paris, where they have the great, a beautiful arc. They call it the Arc de Triomphe, and we’re going to have one in Washington, DC, very soon.”
Democrats have mocked the “Patriot Games” online and even compared it “The Hunger Games”, the dystopian young adult novel by Suzanne Collins in which one boy and one girl from each district participate in a lethal competition.
It is also a popular movie franchise, starring Jennifer Lawrence, Woody Harrelson and Philip Seymour Hoffman among others.
On X (formerly Twitter), The Democrats posted a scene from the film franchise and captioned it: “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.”
In the video message, Trump also highlighted his plans for a UFC fight on the South Lawn of The White House, which will take place on his birthday, June 14, which is also a holiday known as Flag Day in the US.
“On Flag Day, we will have a one-of-a-kind UFC event here at the White House. It’ll be the greatest champion fighters in the world, all fighting that same night. The great Dana White is hosting, and it’s going to be something special”, Trump said.
Trump has also caused debate and controversy amid the renaming of the Kennedy Center performing arts centre to “Trump-Kennedy Center”.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on social media that the board voted unanimously to make the change due to “the unbelievable work President Trump has done over the last year in saving the building”.
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