“May fate be favorable to you. » This is one of the last posts published on X by the governor of California. Why did Gavin Newsom dig up this famous slogan from “Hunger Games”, a famous dystopian saga telling the story of teenagers participating in “hunger games”? Because a recent idea from Donald Trump strangely recalls the principle on which the trilogy is based – accompanied by two additional books – written by Suzanne Collins and adapted for the cinema from 2012.
The American president actually announced the organization of a national tournament in 2026. An event scheduled as part of the celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the United States. “In the fall, we will organize the first Patriot Games, an unprecedented four-day athletics competition with the best high school athletes, one young man and one young woman from each state or territory,” declared the “Potus” via a video posted on the White House account.
“Divert the people’s attention”
As a reminder, the “Hunger Games” refer to this annual game where each “district” of Panem, the fictional country in Collins’ work, is required to send a teenage girl and a teenager to take part in a televised fight to the death to distract the people and the bourgeoisie from the regime. A priori, no fight has been announced on the program for these “Patriot Games”.
Like many Internet users, Democrats were quick to joke around the new project imagined by Trump. “A competition between teenagers, created by authoritarian leaders to distract people from their brutality and corruption? What could go wrong,” Democratic Rep. Delia C. Ramirez wrote on X.
