Danielle Alvarez, Freedom 250 spokeswoman, said: “The 2026 Patriot Games is about more than competition, they’re about the grit, character, and optimism that have carried America for over 250 years.
“These young athletes represent the very best of who we are and the promise of what’s still to come.”
The competition events include track and field activities, dodgeball and kickball, a team sport that combines the rules of baseball and soccer.
The games are airing live on ESPN, with a one-hour special to be broadcast on the ABC network this Thursday at 21:00 EDT (01:00 GMT Friday).
The Walt Disney Company, which owns both ABC and ESPN, is currently under investigation by the Trump administration.
The games were ultimately won by Kennadi Furman, girl from Kansas; and Rockwell Myers, a boy from Utah.
Trump took to the stage to honour the top three boys and top three girls, and to give cheques and trophies to the winners. He also danced on stage as YMCA played from the speakers and audience members chanted “USA”.
During his trip, an F-16 fighter jet was deployed to intercept a plane that violated temporary airspace restrictions over the games.
The jet deployed flares to alert the pilot, according to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad).
The flares, “may have been visible to the public,” the agency said, adding that the “flares are employed with the highest regard for safety, burn out quickly and completely, and pose no danger to people on the ground”.
Norad intercepts during presidential travel are not uncommon, however it is relatively rare to deploy flares. While Trump was visiting his golf course in New Jersey on Sunday, Norad jets were sent to intercept two different flights that violated temporary flight restrictions.
Trump has made sport an important part of his second term in the White House. He has become the first president to attend a Super Bowl, and was also at the NBA and World Cup finals.
The Patriot Games has been attacked by Trump critics, who have argued that it lacks diversity.
Some opponents have also taken to social media to make comparisons with the Hunger Games, a fictional series in which pairs of children are sent by their respective districts in an imagined country to compete in violent individual contests.
