America\u2019s 250th birthday is on July 4, 2026, and the White House is planning to go all out to celebrate, promoting new national events, such as the \u201cPatriot Games,\u201d that will anchor the yearlong festivities.<\/p>\n
President Trump\u00a0announced Thursday\u00a0the launch of Freedom 250, \u201ca national, non-partisan organization leading the Administration\u2019s celebration\u201d to \u201cdeliver the most extraordinary commemoration in American history,\u201d according to a\u00a0news release.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese landmark events \u2014 spanning culture, faith, innovation, sports, and patriotism \u2014 will unite Americans across all 50 states and territories in honoring the nation\u2019s past and launching the next chapter of American greatness,\u201d the release says.<\/p>\n
In a\u00a0video announcement, Trump revealed plans for the Patriot Games, a competition of young athletes from around the country and U.S. territories.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the fall, we will host the first-ever Patriot Games, an unprecedented four-day athletic event featuring the greatest high school athletes \u2014 one young man and one young woman from each state and territory,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
The president previously\u00a0spoke about the competition in July,\u00a0saying it would be televised and led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.<\/p>\n
Many social media users,\u00a0including Democrats, have compared the Patriot Games to\u00a0The Hunger Games,<\/em>\u00a0the popular dystopian book series by Suzanne Collins and movie franchise, where children are selected from across a futuristic nation to fight to the death in a televised event. It\u2019s worth noting that Trump\u2019s proposed Patriot Games do not actually expect competitors to fight to the death.<\/p>\n \u201cI did not expect President Trump to make the Hunger Games real,\u201d\u00a0one X user posted on Thursday, along with a video of Trump\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw that \u2018Patriot Games\u2019 news and thought it was a joke. It is not,\u201d another\u00a0X user wrote on Thursday, with an accompanying GIF from the\u00a0Hunger Games<\/em> movie. \u201cNext week Trump will announce The Long Walk,\u201d the user continued, referring to a televised event in a Stephen King novel where teenage boys have to walk at a set pace or face deadly elimination.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, other users are excited about the Patriot Games.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is how you honor our country and American excellence,\u201d Ryan Fournier, cofounder of Students for Trump,\u00a0wrote on X Thursday. \u201cThis is going to be absolutely EPIC! \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8\ud83d\udd25\u201d<\/p>\n In Trump\u2019s video announcement, the president also talked about plans for an Ultimate Fighting Championship fight on the South Lawn of the White House, set to take place on Flag Day, June 14, which will also be his 80th birthday.<\/p>\n \u201cOn Flag Day, we will have a one-of-a-kind UFC event here at the White House. It\u2019ll be the greatest champion fighters in the world, all fighting that same night. The great Dana White is hosting, and it\u2019s going to be something special,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n The president also announced that from June 25 through July 10, 2026, the Great American State Fair will be held on the National Mall. It will feature pavilions from all 50 states that \u201cwill showcase breathtaking innovation while celebrating America\u2019s unique history, culture, and people,\u201d according to Trump.<\/p>\n He also mentioned in the video that he plans to begin construction on a new arch monument in the nation\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are the only major place without a triumphal arc. A beautiful triumphal arc, one like in Paris, where they have the great, a beautiful arc. They call it the Arc de Triomphe, and we\u2019re going to have one in\u00a0Washington, D.C., very soon,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n The Washington Monument will be illuminated with festive lights from Dec. 31, 2025, through Jan. 5, 2026, to signal the start of the 250th birthday celebrations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" America\u2019s 250th birthday is on July 4, 2026, and the White House is planning to go all out<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-us"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2436"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2438,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2436\/revisions\/2438"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}