Celebrity coaches and video applications: Here’s what we’re learning about Trump’s ‘Patriot Games’
By Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, CNN
(CNN) — The Trump administration is planning to match teen competitors with celebrity coaches for the televised “Patriot Games” athletic contest, one of the events marking the United States’ 250th anniversary.
A spokesperson for Freedom 250, the non-profit group leading the administration’s celebrations, provided new details to CNN after President Donald Trump formally announced the event in December. The spokesperson did not provide any names of the celebrities the group is recruiting to work with the teenaged participants.
The competition will take place in the fall. Trump teased the event as “an unprecedented four-day athletic event featuring the greatest high school athletes — one young man and one young woman from each state and territory.”
Athletic ability will not be the sole factor considered for eligibility. Potential volunteers will need to submit an online video application responding to a number of prompts to explain why they want to be chosen to represent their state, the spokesperson said.
Details about the types of athletic contests the participants will compete in have yet to be made public.
Applications will be open to athletes aged 14 to 17 from all 50 states, US territories & tribes, but those who will turn 18 before December 31 will not be eligible, the spokesperson said.
The competition has drawn comparisons on social media to “The Hunger Games,” a dystopian young-adult book series and film franchise in which children are forced to fight to the death in televised arenas.
Trump first previewed the competition in July, saying it would be televised and led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Celebrations include IndyCar race and UFC fight
The new details emerge as the administration pushes forward with its plans for national events. The executive branch is driving efforts to pull off the president’s anniversary priorities, with agencies partnering with Freedom 250 for certain landmark events: Kennedy will be partnering with Freedom 250 in hosting the Patriot Games, and the Agriculture Department has embraced the president’s Great American State Fair initiative, which asks states to compete to have their fair chosen by Trump as the “most patriotic.”
Other 250th initiatives include a UFC fight on the White House’s South Lawn on the president’s birthday and the construction of a giant triumphal arch across from the Lincoln Memorial.
An August IndyCar race near the National Mall is also on the schedule, with the president signing an order last week directing the Interior and Transportation departments to work with the DC Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office to move quickly in order to pull it off. The effort may need congressional approval.
Bowser, a Democrat, is on board with the race and touted it as an economic boon for the nation’s capital, which has been strained by mass federal layoffs.
“The race weekend will rev up the economic engine of D.C. by filling our hotels and restaurants and by showing visitors, residents and the sports world that there’s no better city, people and backdrop for major sports events,” she said in a statement.
The administration has also launched two history-oriented efforts inspired by the American Freedom Train that toured the country during America’s bicentennial bash in 1976 and gave Americans the chance to see everything from Judy Garland’s dress from “The Wizard of Oz” to George Washington’s copy of the US Constitution.
The National Archives’ “Freedom Plane” will bring documents from the era of America’s founding to eight US cities in 2026, and the Institute of Museum of Library Services has announced six Freedom Truck Mobile Museums, with material from conservative media company PragerU and Hillsdale College.
Planning for the history-related initiatives comes as the administration conducts an unprecedented review of the Smithsonian Institution, insisting that the museum complex’s 250th content align with Trump’s push for programming that renews national pride.
“The American people will have no patience for any museum that is diffident about America’s founding or otherwise uncomfortable conveying a positive view of American history, one which is justifiably proud of our country’s accomplishments and record,” administration officials wrote in a letter to the museum in December.
The-CNN-Wire
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