With Trump, anything is possible: This dystopian idea might actually become reality.
Donald Trump's team has reportedly been planning a new reality show where immigrants compete in patriotic challenges for U.S. citizenship. The concept is already facing a lot of criticism and sounds like a bad joke to many.
Patriotic Challenges
The project is reportedly titled "The American" and comes from a Canadian producer who has worked on other reality formats. In the show, immigrants will compete in various patriotic tasks for the chance to win U.S. citizenship. Planned challenges include gold panning in San Francisco, building a rocket in Cape Canaveral, and answering quiz questions about American history. The grand finale is set to take place in Washington, D.C., where the winner will be awarded their citizenship in a ceremonial event.
Was The Government Directly Involved?
There are reports that the idea for the show was supported by Trump's Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem. Allegedly, she was even involved in creating a detailed pitch document outlining the basic concept of the show. However, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has officially denied these claims, stating that Noem was neither aware of the proposal nor involved in the planning.
Most people know Kristi Noem from a video released in March, where she stands in front of the CECOT, a high–security prison in El Salvador, delivering a stern message to so–called "criminal illegal immigrants." In the video, she claims that she and President Trump are committed to hunting down, arresting, and imprisoning these people in facilities like this one if they don't leave the U.S. immediately. Behind her, inmates with shaved heads are crowded into a cell, a scene that many viewers found disturbing. Noem is also known for a passage in her book where she admitted to shooting her 14–month–old dog because it was causing trouble, adding that she "hated the dog."
Real–Life Hunger Games?
Many people are reacting with shock to the plans for this game show. While some of his supporters see it as entertaining, many others have criticized it as deeply disturbing and dehumanizing. On social media, users are comparing it to a real–life version of The Hunger Games, a cruel spectacle of human suffering turned into mere entertainment.
this is so dystopian and unethical- trump has literally turned usa into the hunger games
— | (@positionsmafiaa) May 17, 2025
For many people fleeing to the U.S., the journey is marked by trauma, hope, and the desire for a better life for themselves and their families. The idea of then making these people compete for their fate on a game show feels almost sadistic, mocking their desperate struggles for safety and freedom. It reduces the dignity of refugees to cheap thrills and turns their search for a new beginning into a spectacle for the masses.
Why the hell is nothing being done? An evil dictatorship is rising up.
— Home of DCU (@homeofdcu) May 17, 2025
Trump And The "Memefication" Of His Immigration Policies
This show concept fits perfectly into the Trump administration's strategy of spreading political messages in a provocative, meme– format. One particularly controversial example was a Valentine's Day post from the official White House Instagram page that read, "Roses are red, violets are blue, come here illegally, and we'll deport you". A poem that many found tasteless and dehumanizing.
Even TikTok trends like the "100 Men vs. 1 Gorilla" meme have been picked up by Trump's team. The White House Instagram page recently posted an AI–generated image of Donald Trump with the caption, "142,000 Illegal Aliens vs. 1 President Trump." This kind of meme communication shows how Trump's team tries to reduce complex political issues like immigration to shocking, often polarizing soundbites.
What exactly will come of this idea remains unclear.
What do you think about this?