President Donald Trump recently announced a new youth athletic competition to celebrate the upcoming 250th anniversary of the United States. While Trump seems proud of inaugurating these new “Patriot Games,” his description of the event sounds eerily like a similarly titled fictional competition.
Trump’s ‘Patriot Games’ announcement sparks ‘Hunger Games’ comparisons
“In the fall, we will host the first-ever Patriot Games, 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 said, before taking a shot at transgender athletes, adding, “but I promise there will be no men playing in women’s sports. You won’t see that. You’ll see everything but that.”
Trump also discussed his plans to build new monuments in Washington, D.C., including a victory arch similar to those found in world capitals such as Paris. These projects are all intended to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States’ founding in 1776.
While Trump’s announcement seems designed to appeal to his conservative idea of patriotism and push his right-wing agenda, the announcement immediately sparked a comparison that the president likely did not anticipate.
“Did Donald Trump just announce the Hunger Games?!” producer and Black List founder Franklin Leonard posted on X, formerly Twitter, echoing a sentiment shared by many others on social media.
The best-selling Hunger Games book series, later adapted into a movie franchise starring Jennifer Lawrence, presents a dystopian future in which a totalitarian North American state requires its districts to send one boy and one girl to compete in a public battle to the death each year.
Trump’s ‘Hunger Games’ distraction
Some have viewed Trump’s new competition as a feature of an increasingly authoritarian state.
“We’ve reached the Hunger Games portion of America’s fascist takeover. It’s all happening…” Justin L. Hunte wrote.
Others interpreted the proposed competition as a diversion from issues that the American public cares about.
“We asked for affordable health care and Republicans are giving us the Hunger Games,” the No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen podcast account shared.
Yet others speculated that the announcement was another tool meant to distract from Friday’s scheduled release of the Epstein files.
“Announcing America’s version of the Hunger Games is one way to distract from the Epstein files,” writer Kelly posted on X. “May the odds be ever in your favour,” she added, referencing the Hunger Games‘ slogan.
“So The Hunger Games? Them files can’t drop soon enough!” sports journalist and host Bomani Jones wrote, with a Hunger Games GIF.
Some posts speculated how Hunger Games author Suzanne Collins would react to the president’s announcement.
“TFW you write a dystopian novel series and a dystopian ruler takes it up as a playbook… …and my deepest sympathies to Suzanne Collins in these difficult times,” one post read, alongside a meme GIF.
For many, Trump’s time in the White House — marked by a global pandemic, racial protests and increasingly authoritarian government policies — has felt like a post-apocalyptic drama made real. But his latest announcement seems to be almost literally bringing one of these stories to life.