President Trump on Monday celebrated the decision by a West Point alumni group to cancel an event to honor the actor Tom Hanks for his support of the military and veterans.
“Our great West Point (getting greater all the time!) has smartly cancelled the Award Ceremony for actor Tom Hanks. Important move!” Trump posted on Truth Social. “We don’t need destructive, WOKE recipients getting our cherished American Awards!!! Hopefully the Academy Awards, and other Fake Award Shows, will review their Standards and Practices in the name of Fairness and Justice.”
The West Point Association of Graduates had announced in June plans to honor Hanks with the Sylvanus Thayer Award, which it says is given each year to individuals who exemplify the West Point motto of “Duty, Honor, Country.”
The Washington Post first reported that the military academy called off this month’s event, saying the cancellation would allow West Point to instead focus on preparing enrollees for their future service.
Hanks is among the most famous actors in Hollywood and has won multiple Academy Awards. In announcing the award, the West Point group highlighted his starring roles in “Apollo 13” and “Saving Private Ryan,” as well as his role as a producer on “Band of Brothers,” “The Pacific,” “Masters of the Air” and “Greyhound.”
Hanks, who previously collaborated with former President Biden, has served as a national spokesperson for the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., and he helped raise money for the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial in the nation’s capital. The alumni group also cited Hanks’s coffee company founded in 2023 called Hanx for Troops.
The cancellation is the latest move during the Trump administration to move the military away from anything the president or his allies might deem “woke” or “politically correct.”
Since Trump took office, the Pentagon has taken a series of steps to root out what he and his allies have decried as examples of political correctness or “woke” policies. The department has rolled back diversity initiatives and reversed name changes to military bases that had been switched because they were named after Confederate soldiers.
Trump last week signed an executive order to rebrand the Defense Department as the Department of War. In making the announcement, he suggested the Department of Defense had been too “wokey,” leading to less U.S. success on the battlefield since World War II.
