In an unprecedented move, the U.S. military academy West Point has suddenly dropped Tom Hanks from a ceremony later this month.
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According to The Washington Post, Hanks was set to receive the 2025 Sylvanus Thayer Award during a Sept. 25 ceremony at West Point.
The military academy announced in June that the Forrest Gump star would receive the award, which is given to an outstanding citizen of the US “whose service and accomplishments in the national interest exemplify personal devotion to the ideals expressed in West Point’s motto: ‘Duty, Honor, Country.'”
Honorable Robert A. McDonald, Class of 1975, WPAOG Board Chairman, spoke about Hank’s receiving the award. “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.”
Hanks also spoke out about receiving the award. “To have my first-ever visit to the Academy be to accept such an honor as the Thayer Award is simply astounding. West Point’s legacy of leadership, character, and service to the nation is a powerful example for all Americans. To be recognized by an institution whose graduates have shaped our country’s history through selfless service is both humbling and meaningful.”
However, Retired Army Col. Mark Bieger, president and CEO of the West Point Association of Graduates, announced plans have changed.
“This decision allows the Academy to continue its focus on its core mission of preparing cadets to lead, fight, and win as officers in the world’s most lethal force, the United States Army,” he wrote.
Bieger did not reveal if Hanks would receive the award from West Point at a later date.
President Trump Reacts to West Point Dropping Tom Hanks From Award Ceremony
After the news broke about West Point’s decision, President Trump took to Truth Social to share his thoughts.
“Our great West Point (getting greater all the time!) has smartly cancelled the Award Ceremony for actor Tom Hanks,” he wrote. “Important move! We don’t need destructive, WOKE recipients getting our cherished American Awards!!!”
He then wrote how award shows should follow West Point. “Hopefully, the Academy Awards and other Fake Award Shows will review their Standards and Practices in the name of Fairness and Justice. Watch their DEAD RATINGS SURGE!”
Months before the 2024 presidential election, Tom Hanks spoke out against the possibility of Trump returning to the White House.
“I think there’s always reason to be worried about the short term,” he told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. “But I look at the longer term of what happened.”
“Look, our Constitution says, ‘We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union,'” he continued. “That journey to a more perfect union has missteps in it.”
Hanks did point out that the US has made progress towards a perfect union. “How does it come about?” he asked. “It comes about not because of somebody’s narrative of who was right, or who was a victim or not. It comes out of the slow mediating of the truth to the actual practical life that we end up living.
He further pointed out, “It comes down to the good deed that is practiced with your neighbor.”
“I will always have faith that the United States of America,” he added. “And the Western societies that have adopted more or less the same sort of democracy cannot help but turn towards what is right.”