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Just when you thought 2025 couldn’t get any weirder.
Donald Trump has announced that an event is being planned at the White House to coincide with the US’ 250th anniversary celebrations next year.
It’s a four-day athletic event for high school students called the “Patriot Games”.
“In the fall, we will host the first ever Patriot Games, an unprecedented four-day athletic event featuring the greatest high school athletes,” said Trump. “One young man and one young woman from each state and territory.”
The idea behind the initiative is to “renew the patriotism, pride, and pioneering spirit of America and lay the groundwork for the next 250 years of independence and freedom.”
It didn’t take long for social media users and even politicians to spot the same thing: this suspiciously sounds like the concept of Suzanne Collins’ “The Hunger Games” books, which centres around a dystopian competition in which one boy and one girl from different districts compete and fight to the death.
“I’m sorry but is he announcing the Hunger Games?” wrote one user, while the official X account of the US Democratic Party quoted the film: “’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 honour, courage and sacrifice.’ (The Hunger Games, 2012)”.
Check out some of the reactions below:
The original three “The Hunger Games” books were adapted to the screen and released between 2012 to 2015, with Jennifer Lawrence starring as Katniss Everdeen. A prequel, The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes, was released in 2023; a second prequel, Sunrise On The Reaping, is due to hit cinemas in November 2026.