The West Point Association of Graduates announced on June 11 that movie actor Tom Hanks would receive this year's Sylvanus Thayer Award at a ceremony and parade this month hosted by the U.S. Military Academy. The award goes "to an outstanding citizen of the United States whose service and accomplishments in the national interest exemplify personal devotion to the ideals expressed in West Point's motto: 'Duty, Honor, Country.'"
On Sept. 6, the alumni group canceled the event.
In its original announcement, the alumni group called out Hanks' positive portrayals of American service members. He starred as real-life hero Navy Capt. James Lovell in "Apollo 13" and fictional hero Army Capt. John Miller in the World War II epic "Saving Private Ryan." He won the 1995 best actor Oscar playing the mythical Medal of Honor winner Forrest Gump. He served as executive producer of the miniseries "Band of Brothers" in 2001, "The Pacific" in 2010 and "Masters of the Air" in 2024, featuring American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines during World War II.
In noncinema activities, Hanks served as national spokesperson for the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., as national chairperson of the D-Day Museum Capital Campaign and as chairperson of the Elizabeth Dole Foundation's Hidden Heroes campaign. In 2006, he was inducted as an honorary member of the United States Army Rangers Hall of Fame, and in 2016, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
The explanation given for the cancellation of the ceremony and parade was to allow "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." Apparently, a ceremony at West Point would be a diversion this year.
I do not believe a word of that excuse. The entertainer Bob Hope accepted his Thayer Award at West Point before an audience of about 3,500 cadets, officers and guests in the midst of the Vietnam War. Could the true reason for the cancellation be Hanks' record of support for the candidacies of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris? And what about his parody of Trump supporters on the 50th anniversary show of "Saturday Night Live" earlier this year? My guess is that the alumni group realized a ceremony and parade for Hanks might precipitate an eruption of Trumpian anger. Instead, the cancellation generated enthusiastic White House support.
Trump celebrated the decision on social media: "Our great West Point (getting greater all the time!) has smartly cancelled the Award Ceremony for actor Tom Hanks." It made no difference to the president that it was the Academy's alumni association, not the military academy itself, that made the decision. He continued, "We don't need destructive, WOKE recipients getting our cherished American Awards!!!"
It sure looks to me — and to Trump, too — as though the cancellation is one more instance of the country's "reverse cancel culture": being canceled for disloyalty to MAGA ideals.
This past July 14, late night host Stephen Colbert criticized Paramount for settling a lawsuit with Trump as a "big fat bribe." Two days later the CBS Network, owned by Paramount, canceled Colbert's show. Trump warned that "next up" for cancellation would be Colbert's counterparts who also belittle him, the "even less talented Jimmy Kimmel, and then, a weak, and very insecure, Jimmy Fallon."
Jon Stewart, another CBS host, explained the cancellation of Colbert's show this way: "I think the answer is in the fear and pre-compliance that is gripping all of America's institutions at this very moment."
Corporations besides Paramount have hastened to accommodate the president's cultural preferences. Cracker Barrel, a restaurant chain, removed a grizzled white man from its logo. After a call with White House officials, the company returned the codger to his place next to a barrel. Trump passed along the word: "All of your fans very much appreciate it."
Major League Baseball's all-time leader in hits, Pete Rose, was barred from entry into the Hall of Fame after he bet on games and lied about it. Trump pressured baseball commissioner Rob Manfred to reverse that decision. He did, saying, "Obviously, I have respect for the office, and the advice that he gave I paid attention to." Baseball is not the only sport where Trump has sought to impose his personal views. In July he said that if the NFL's team in the nation's capital, "don't change the name back to the original 'Washington Redskins,' and get rid of the ridiculous moniker, 'Washington Commanders,' I won't make a deal for them to build a Stadium in Washington."
Trump and his MAGA followers are telling Americans what we can watch on TV, what mascots sports teams should feature, what exhibits can be displayed in the Smithsonian, what artists perform at the Kennedy Center and what drawings should be featured on Cracker Barrel's logo. He's even threatened to cancel the birthright citizenship of his long-time cultural bugaboo, the TV personality Rosie O'Donnell. Trump is as determined to dominate American culture as he is American politics.
Now, it's one thing to agitate for the cancellation of Cracker Barrel's new logo. But canceling Tom Hanks is a bucket of ice water thrown in the face of the American public.
Elizabeth Dole, a former Republican senator and past winner of the Thayer Award herself, has no doubt that Hanks "lives up to the criteria of 'a great American.'" I myself asked ChatGPT to identify America's most beloved living movie actor. It replied, "Based on current popularity surveys, widespread fan respect, cultural resonance and crowd-sourced voting, Tom Hanks emerges as the clear frontrunner for the title." And for sure, he is far more popular than Trump, whose disapproval rating has reached 55% according to the Economist's YouGov weekly poll.
I have friends and colleagues who attended West Point and have great respect for their principled characters and can-do attitudes. But their alumni association went a bridge too far in canceling American icon Tom Hanks.
For shame.
A renaissance man, Keith Raffel has served as the senior counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee, started a successful internet software company and written five novels, which you can check out at keithraffel.com. He currently spends the academic year as a resident scholar at Harvard. To find out more about Keith and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators website at creators.com.
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