President Trump praised the U.S. Military Academy at West Point for canceling an awards ceremony for actor Tom Hanks—though The Washington Post reported that the West Point Association of Graduates, not the institution, made the decision.
“Our great West Point (getting greater all the time!) has smartly cancelled the Award Ceremony for actor Tom Hanks,” Trump posted Monday on Truth Social, his social media website. “Important move! We don’t need destructive, WOKE recipients getting our cherished American Awards!!!”
It remains unclear why the alumni association canceled the ceremony and whether that means Hanks won’t ever receive the award. The group and West Point didn’t respond to Inside Higher Ed’s requests for comment Tuesday. The Post reported that retired Army Col. Mark Bieger, the alumni association’s president and chief executive, told faculty the cancellation allows West Point to “focus on its core mission of preparing cadets to lead, fight, and win.”
Hanks was set to receive the association’s annual Sylvanus Thayer Award this month. The association’s June announcement said the award is given to citizens “whose service and accomplishments in the national interest exemplify personal devotion to the ideals expressed in West Point’s motto: ‘Duty, Honor, Country.’”
Hanks, a two-time Academy Award winner, played soldiers in the films Saving Private Ryan and Forrest Gump and was one of the executive producers of the World War II series Band of Brothers and The Pacific. In the announcement, the association further praised him for—among other support for soldiers and veterans—advocating for the WWII and Dwight D. Eisenhower memorials in Washington, D.C.
“Tom Hanks has done more for the positive portrayal of the American service member, more for the caring of the American veteran, their caregivers and their family, and more for the American space program and all branches of government than many other Americans,” Robert A. McDonald, chair of the association’s board, said in the announcement.
