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A political correspondent flagged Trump's "Hunger Games-style" competition as auditions began for kids who will compete.

During an episode of The Daily Beast Podcast, Farrah Tomazin wrapped a conversation about Trump's D.C. beautification projects and spectacles, like the Great American State Fair, by pointing to the next big events he has planned in the nation's capital.

Even though July 4 has passed, "more America 250 spectacles are going on very soon," like an Indy car race and an event Trump is calling the "Patriot Games." It involves bringing together kids from around the country to compete against each other.

"Keep your eye out for this," Tomazin said about the Patriot Games. "It's essentially a Hunger Games-style event."

She was evoking the famous Hunger Games franchise from books and movies, where kids from a dystopian world fight to the death.

"This will not include death and destruction or the like," Tomazin said about the Patriot Games. "But it's basically getting kids from different schools to compete in the nation's capital for a made-for-TV ESPN spectacle."

According to Tomazin, "auditions" to recruit kids to compete in the Patriot Games are "going on at the moment," and the Trump-backed Freedom 250, which organized the Great American State Fair, has "called for auditions where you have to provide an audition tape."

She also compared it to America's Got Talent, the reality competition show, as kids "have to provide them with an audition tape to talk about yourself and how much you love the country, and then you'll get to go to the nation's capital and compete in some sort of Patriot Games."

Sen. John Fetterman's increasingly independent political moves are drawing concern from Senate colleagues and raising questions about whether the Pennsylvania Democrat might eventually leave his party.

Fetterman said last week he would formally switch his party affiliation if Democrats make opposition to Israel part of their official platform — the first time he's laid out specific conditions for departing – and he pointed to recent contested primaries as evidence the party is shifting toward candidates who are "intensely anti-Israel," not just critical of its policies.

One Democratic senator, speaking anonymously to NOTUS, said, "I am concerned" about the prospect of Fetterman switching parties unexpectedly.

Fetterman has also set up a joint fundraising committee with Republican Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA), an arrangement that struck colleagues as unusual. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) said he'd "never seen it before." Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-PA), a progressive who has left open the possibility of challenging Fetterman in 2028, called the move "crazy stuff," arguing it helps Republicans in battleground Pennsylvania races.

Fetterman brushed off the arrangement as "nothing sinister," rooted in shared state interests, and fired back at Deluzio over the congressman's earlier campaign donation to Graham Platner, the Maine Senate candidate who dropped out amid a sexual assault allegation he denies.

The senator has increasingly clashed with his party over Israel, the Iran war, and border security, and recently expressed regret for once calling to eliminate the filibuster, praising former Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema for opposing its removal.

His standing among Pennsylvania Democrats has slipped sharply — a Quinnipiac poll found his approval at just 19% among Democrats, with 52 percent of voters overall saying they want him to leave the party.

Adam Jentleson, Fetterman's former chief of staff, said he believes Fetterman might switch parties "in order to stay relevant," particularly if Democrats win a narrow Senate majority in November and Fetterman could become a decisive vote. Jentleson also warned Fetterman could side with Republicans on a future Supreme Court nomination.

“I think, if he is the majority-maker, he will flip, because it would give him a massive amount of attention,” said Jentleson, who last year expressed concerns about Fetterman's mental health.

Other Democrats pushed back on the switching narrative. Sen. Peter Welch noted Fetterman "votes Democratic all the time," while Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) urged him to stay, saying his positions still align more with Democrats than Republicans on balance.

“I would just encourage him to stay,” Heinrich said. “I think you can have policy differences, but on balance, with the exception of one or two issues, when you look at what he cares about, I think that looks a lot more like the Democratic Party than the Republican Party. He’s always, always welcome in our caucus.”