Trump's "Patriot Games" Are Being Compared to the 'Hunger Games' — Are They Real?
"Does the winner get healthcare?"
Published Dec. 19 2025, 2:39 p.m. ET
In recent years, life has changed in ways large and small. The COVID pandemic changed many things. Some have returned to normal, and some haven't.
The return of President Donald Trump to the White House for his second term has also ushered in many changes. Whether you consider them good or bad often depends on which side of the aisle you hail from.
As these changes have occurred, people have drawn parallels to certain dystopian novel series, acknowledging how certain policies and world events mirror those in novels that no one really wants to live through. This happened again in December 2025 after rumors began circulating about a supposed announcement from Trump announcing the advent of the Patriot Games.
Are the Patriot Games real? Here's what we know.
The Patriot Games sound straight out of a novel, but are they real?
On Dec. 18, 2025, Trump released a video that showed him talking about plans to celebrate the nation's 250th anniversary in 2026.
Among those plans, the White House outlines "funding for events, celebrations, and activities in support of America 250."
Included are plans for "a new outdoor 'National Garden of American Heroes' park featuring statues of 250 American heroes." Innovation throughout the years will be celebrated, and Trump announced that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Health and Human Services Secretary, will be hosting something he called the "Patriot Games."
So yes, despite their bizarre premise, the Patriot Games are real, and are expected to be held sometime in the Fall of 2026.
They will gather "one young man and one young woman" athlete from each state and territory to travel to the Capitol to compete.
Does that sound familiar?
Why are people comparing the Patriot Games to the 'Hunger Games' events?
If you're a fan of Suzanne Collins's Hunger Games series, it should. In the series, which now includes multiple movies adapted from the original novels, each "district" in the future dystopian nation of Panem sends "one young man and woman" from every district to compete in the Capitol for the Hunger Games.
Of course, in the Hunger Games, people fight to the death.
It does not seem likely that the Patriot Games will involve a battle to the death. Nonetheless, people are alarmed by the comparisons and took to social media to discuss their unease.
On TikTok, one weary user wrote, "As an English teacher, I must say that I’m growing tired of moving dystopian fiction novels to the nonfiction shelf in my classroom."
Another wrote, "Hunger Games? Are we really doing this? The Handmaid's Tale wasn't enough?"
One TikToker joked, "Does the winner get healthcare?"
In Panem, the elite denizens of the Capitol rule the country with an iron fist, starving and torturing the people into compliance by limiting resources and making them compete to meet their basic needs.
It's not an exact parallel to modern times, but the addition of the Patriot Games has many crying foul and wondering who exactly thought this was the right thing to do.