Patriot Games Under Fire as Trump-Backed Youth Tournament Skews Political

Trump’s Patriot Games, pitched as a nonpartisan national youth competition, are drawing criticism after CNN found contestants aged 14–17 were selected in part for MAGA loyalty rather than athletic merit; many participants are white and come from homeschooling or private Christian schools, with several representing states they don’t live in (for example, a Massachusetts contestant studying in California and a Puerto Rico entrant from Texas). The event’s format and scoring remain unclear, there’s a $250,000 scholarship at stake for a boy and a girl, and Trump previously said there would be no men in women’s sports.