Claim:
In-mid December 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump announced the Patriot Games, a four-day athletics competition between young men and women from all U.S. states and territories.
Rating:
In mid-December 2025, a claim (archived) circulated online that U.S. President Donald Trump announced the “Patriot Games,” a four-day athletics competition between young men and women from all U.S. states and territories.
One X user, whose post had amassed nearly 30 million views as of this writing, shared the rumor and wrote: “Trump announces an ‘unprecedented four-day athletic event’ with ‘one young man and one young woman from each state and territory.'”
The claim also circulated on Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), Threads (archived), Bluesky (archived) and Reddit (archived), while Snopes readers contacted us to ask whether the announcement was real and whether the event would really go ahead as advertised.
Trump did announce (archived) the Patriot Games as part of the launch of Freedom 250, which describes itself as a “non-partisan organization leading the celebration of America’s 250th birthday” in 2026 (archived).Â
In a news release on its website, Freedom 250 announced “Signature Moments and National Events” that included the Patriot Games, due to take place in the fall of 2026. Freedom 250 wrote that the games were “an unprecedented four-day athletic competition featuring the nation’s top high school athletes — one young man and one young woman from each state and territory —celebrating excellence, teamwork, and American pride.”
Given the above, we have rated this claim as true.Â
Trump said in the video announcement on Freedom 250’s YouTube channel:Â
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. But I promise there will be no men playing in women’s sports. You’re not going to see that. You’ll see everything but that.
The Trump administration first advertised the Patriot Games in July 2025, when the administration announced that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would lead the competition.
Social media users reacting to Trump’s December 2025 announcement (archived, archived, archived) quickly drew parallels to “The Hunger Games,” a series of books by American author Suzanne Collins adapted into a blockbuster movie franchise.
In the series, two young “tributes” from each of the 12 districts of the fictional country of Panem must compete in an annual killing game, with the victor granted celebrity status and resources for their often-impoverished home districts.
There was no indication the Patriot Games would pit competitors against each other in a fight to the death, as of this writing. However, it was unclear what the format of the competition would be, how competitors would qualify and what prizes, if any, would be on offer.
