Once upon a time, the biggest threat Tom Hanks posed to national security was making every American cry in unison. Whether storming Omaha Beach or talking to a volleyball, Hanks specialized in weaponized empathy. He was our cinematic dad, our comfort-food patriot, the guy who could make a two-and-a-half-hour movie about the postal service (The Post) feel like a national security briefing.
And now, apparently, he’s woke.
The West Point Association of Graduates canceled its most prestigious award to Hanks, the Sylvanus Thayer Award, just weeks after announcing it. An internal email from alumni leadership explained the nixing would let the academy “focus on its core mission.” That’s polite code for: “We were about to give a trophy to America’s dad, but then someone shouted woke and we dove under the table.”
The Tom Hanks Paradox
Hanks was supposed to receive the award for decades of military portrayals and veteran advocacy. This is the man who built the WWII Museum in New Orleans, who executive-produced Band of Brothers, who narrated enough World War II documentaries to qualify as a living Ken Burns cameo.
Yet in the Year of Perpetual Outrage, Tom Hanks has been recast not as America’s conscience but as a subversive agent of cultural rot. A Hollywood sleeper cell. A woke saboteur. A man who betrayed the troops by… supporting the troops.
Only in this climate could the nicest guy in Hollywood be framed as an existential threat to the U.S. military.
Enter the Commander-in-Tweet
Trump took to Truth Social to declare the cancellation an “important move.” He labeled Hanks “destructive,” urged the Oscars to “do the same,” and somehow conflated the West Point alumni group with “our great West Point.”
This is classic Trump logic: if a celebrity once said something nice about vaccines, they are an enemy of the state. If they cried while accepting an award, they are woke. If they portrayed Captain Miller in Saving Private Ryan, they are secretly Antifa.
The irony is inescapable. Trump, who once tried to give Kid Rock national security clearance by accident, now insists Tom Hanks is too subversive to receive a commemorative plaque from an alumni association.
The Sylvanus Thayer Award, Explained Poorly
The Sylvanus Thayer Award has historically gone to figures who embody West Point’s values of “Duty, Honor, Country.” Past recipients include Eisenhower, Colin Powell, and, in one particularly confusing year, Ross Perot. It is not a Nobel Prize. It is not even a Teen Choice Award. It is a ceremonial pat on the back that comes with a dinner.
But in 2025, even symbolic gestures are battlegrounds. Hanks’ sin was not treason, corruption, or even starring in The Circle. His sin was existing in Hollywood while occasionally saying America should be kind. That’s enough to trigger cancellation—this time not from the left, but from the right.
Military Honors, Culture-War Casualties
The deeper story here is not about Hanks. It’s about how even military honors have been conscripted into America’s culture war. Institutions that once prided themselves on being above politics now panic at the first whiff of ideology.
Awarding Tom Hanks should have been the safest, blandest choice imaginable. Instead, it became a flashpoint. Suddenly the Academy’s mission was not leadership but crisis management. Not celebrating values, but dodging hashtags.
If the military can’t honor Tom Hanks without igniting a partisan firestorm, what hope do we have left for shared culture?
The Redefinition of “Woke”
The word woke has traveled far from its roots in Black liberation movements. It has been stretched, twisted, and Photoshopped until it now means “anything I dislike, fear, or don’t understand.”
In this case, Tom Hanks is woke because he once played a gay lawyer in Philadelphia. He is woke because he said slavery was bad during a press tour. He is woke because he’s been happily married for decades without once headlining a tabloid.
By that definition, being decent is now radical. Niceness is subversion. Empathy is extremism. Which, to be fair, explains a lot about where we are as a country.
Celebrity, Ideology, and Tradition Walk Into a Bar
What happens when celebrity, ideology, and tradition collide? You get a canceled award ceremony at West Point. The collision itself isn’t new—remember when the Dixie Chicks were excommunicated for criticizing Bush? But the military’s role in this drama feels new.
Traditionally, the armed forces have tried to project neutrality, at least symbolically. The Sylvanus Thayer Award was supposed to be about transcendent values: integrity, sacrifice, leadership. Now it’s a proxy fight about whether Forrest Gump is a Marxist sleeper agent.
Trump’s Oscars Comment: Because Why Not
Trump also urged the Oscars to follow suit. Imagine the Academy Awards opening with a disclaimer: “Due to political concerns, Tom Hanks is no longer eligible for recognition. Also, no more lifetime achievement awards for Meryl Streep. She cried once during a speech, and that was suspicious.”
The Oscars are already three hours of celebrities clapping for each other in designer gowns while pretending they’re oppressed. Taking Tom Hanks off the table wouldn’t make them less political; it would just make them more ridiculous.
The Core Mission, Redefined
Retired Col. Mark Bieger told faculty the cancellation would let the alumni group “focus on its core mission.” What exactly is that mission? Producing leaders? Protecting the brand? Ensuring no one accidentally applauds someone who once starred in a Nora Ephron movie?
If the core mission of West Point alumni now includes “avoid anyone who might be called woke,” then the potential recipient pool has narrowed to Kid Rock, the MyPillow guy, and maybe the original cast of Duck Dynasty.
The Future of Military Awards
If Tom Hanks can’t get honored, who can? Who is sufficiently un-woke to be safe?
A shortlist:
- A guy who once yelled at an REI cashier.
- Someone who owns more than three boats.
- A celebrity who has never acted in, sung about, or acknowledged the existence of marginalized people.
- Ronald Reagan, exhumed and propped up like Lenin.
That’s it. That’s the whole list.
Here’s the thing about culture wars: they eat everything. They devour awards ceremonies, museums, school curriculums, even funerals. Nothing is too sacred or too trivial to become another proxy battlefield.
Canceling Tom Hanks is not just absurd. It’s tragic. Because if we can’t agree that America’s dad deserves a trophy for playing America’s soldiers, then we can’t agree on anything. Not duty. Not honor. Not country.
The haunting truth is that the real casualty here is shared meaning. When even the blandest, safest cultural figures are recast as threats, the glue that held civil society together dissolves. The culture war leaves nothing behind but rubble and retweets.
And someday, when we look back, we’ll remember not the bravery of soldiers or the service of veterans, but the time America decided Tom Hanks was too woke for West Point.