The alumni association at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point has canceled an award ceremony for actor and veterans advocate Tom Hanks, citing a desire for the Army service academy to focus on preparing future officers for war after several political controversies involving the Trump administration shook the institution this year.
Retired Army Col. Mark Bieger, president and chief executive officer of the West Point Association of Graduates, disclosed the decision in an email to faculty circulated Friday. A copy of Bieger’s message was reviewed and verified by The Washington Post.
Hanks, 69, was to receive the prestigious Sylvanus Thayer Award, which recognizes an “outstanding citizen” who did not attend West Point and has a distinguished record of service that exemplifies the academy’s ideals: “Duty, Honor, Country.” A ceremony and parade were scheduled for Sept. 25.
Bieger wrote that the alumni association, in coordination with the academy, “will not be holding the Thayer Award ceremony” as originally scheduled and apologized for the cancellation. The email did not say whether Hanks’s award has been revoked or if it will be presented in some other format.
“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,” wrote Bieger, who earned a Silver Star for combat valor in Iraq.
Bieger did not respond to requests for comment. Officials with West Point referred questions to the alumni association. A spokesperson for Hanks could not be reached for comment.
The decision marks a dramatic shift from June, when the association announced Hanks as its 2025 Thayer recipient. The alumni group cited his work acting in several movies portraying U.S. service members, including “Saving Private Ryan,” “Forrest Gump” and “Greyhound.” It also credited his producing of “Band of Brothers” and “The Pacific,” both World War II-themed miniseries, and his extensive advocacy for veterans.
Hanks, the announcement noted, was a leading proponent for creation of the World War II Memorial in D.C.; supported efforts to build a national memorial for President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a celebrated Army general before entering politics; and served as national chairman for a massive fundraising campaign to establish what is now the National WWII Museum in New Orleans.
“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 McDonald, a former secretary of veterans affairs and the alumni association’s board chairman, said in the June announcement.
Hanks, in the same announcement, called it “humbling and meaningful” to be recognized by the institution. Other recipients have included presidents, defense secretaries, diplomats, senators and journalists.
But the planned celebration appears to have run headlong into Trump-era politics.
President Joe Biden, with actor Tom Hanks and his wife, the actress and musician Rita Wilson, at the White House in 2023. – (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)
In 2020, Hanks participated in a campaign fundraiser with Joe Biden, who went on to defeat Donald Trump for the presidency that year in an election marred by Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud. Months later, after a pro-Trump mob smashed its way into Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, in a failed attempt to stop the certification of Biden’s victory, Hanks hosted a televised event called “Celebrating America” that was organized by the Biden Inaugural Committee. Hanks noted then that the United States had seen “deep divisions and a troubling rancor” over recent years.
Hanks assisted Biden again one year into his presidency, narrating a video touting the value of perseverance as the U.S. economy rallied and the covid-19 pandemic subsided. “We are stronger than we were a year ago today,” Hanks said then.
Hanks received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his acting and advocacy from President Barack Obama in 2016. He also has poked fun at Trump supporters while portraying one in “Saturday Night Live” skits, once in 2016 and again in 2025.
The award ceremony’s cancellation follows a number of changes at West Point, long considered one of the most prestigious universities in the country, and other military services academies since Trump’s return to power.
In January, Trump issued an executive order calling for a rollback of programs promoting diversity, equity and inclusion in the armed forces, saying leaders, curriculums and instructors at all of the U.S. service academies should be scrutinized. Other changes followed, including the cancellation of some classes and the disbanding of numerous “affinity groups” for cadets, such as the National Society of Black Engineers and Latin Cultural Club.
More recently, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll directed West Point to revoke the appointment of Jen Easterly, a cybersecurity expert and West Point graduate who had served in the presidential administrations of Biden and George W. Bush, a Republican whom Trump has attacked in the past.
Easterly’s dismissal from the school’s social sciences department followed complaints from far-right activist Laura Loomer, an unofficial adviser to Trump who has exhibited an unusual level of influence on personnel matters in the president’s second term.
West Point also recently rehung a 20-foot portrait of Gen. Robert E. Lee, a West Point graduate who fought to preserve slavery for the Confederacy, in its library, a move first reported by the New York Times. The artwork, featuring an enslaved person guiding Lee’s horse in the background, was put in storage in 2022 at the direction of a congressionally mandated commission that examined what to do with images, symbols, names, monuments and other items that commemorate the Confederacy.
Jason Dempsey, an Army veteran who graduated from West Point and taught there as an active-duty officer, questioned how the ceremony for Hanks would detract from the current focus on lethality. He said that he has heard “zero public outcry” about Hanks receiving the award and that he believes a “vast majority” of alumni and current cadets support him receiving it.
Dempsey, who now studies civil military affairs for the Center for a New American Security, said it appears to him that the alumni association is taking ownership of an issue that would have made some leaders at West Point uncomfortable in the current political environment.
“It is the perfect example,” Dempsey said, “of someone being good for the military but not perfectly aligned with current partisan priorities.”
Beth Reinhard and Aaron Schaffer contributed to this report.