Tom Hanks award ceremony axed as Trump renames Department of Defence

Hollywood legend Tom Hanks was due to be honoured at a West Point alumni event on Sept. 25, but the awards ceremony was cancelled the same day President Donald Trump officially changed the name of the Department of Defense.

On Friday, Sept. 6, the president announced that he was renaming the Department of Defense to Department of War.

The change arose from his conviction that a more aggressive title is required for the government agency overseeing the world's most formidable military.

Demonstrating his commitment to the rebrand, Trump signed an executive order to officially alter the title.

That same day, a West Point alumni group announced the cancellation of the awards ceremony, which would've honoured Hanks, who is a veterans advocate but has never served in the military, reports The Mirror US.

Hanks was set to receive the Sylvanus Thayer Award, which the West Point Association of Graduates gives to non-alumni who "draw wholesome comparison" to the military academy's motto, "Duty, Honor, Country," per the Daily Mail.

Retired Army Col. Mark Bieger, the president and CEO of the organisation, emailed members to announce that the organisation was cancelling.

"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, according to the Washington Post.

The mention of 'lethal force' made a fitting reference, given President Trum's decision to rename the Department of Defense to the Department of War.

The signing took place on Friday afternoon, with War Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of Joint Chiefs, Gen. Dan 'Razin' Caine, in attendance.

"It has to do with winning," Trump clarified. "We should have won every war. We could have won every war. But we really chose to be very politically correct or wokey and we just fight forever.

"We just fight to sort of tie," the president went on. "We never wanted to win wars. Every one of them we could have won easily with just a couple of little changes. We just didn't fight to win. We didn't lose anything, but we didn't fight to win."

Speaking about the name, Trump said, "And you know we had it. And we won World War I, we won World War II, we won everything before and as I said, we won everything in between."

The original Department of War was established in 1789 and lasted until 1947. It was President Harry S. Truman who changed the name after World War II when he merged the Navy, Air Force and War Departments.