Tom Hanks Backs Donald Trump for President: Hoax

Story:

Tom Hanks Backs Republican nominee Donald Trump for President.

Other Versions

Tom Hanks Backs Donald Trump, Destroys Hollywood Libs who Criticize him with these 9 Heroic Words.

Analysis:

The story doing rounds on social media sites and discussed widely online claims that Hollywood star actor Tom Hanks has backed Republican nominee Donald Trump for American President in 2016 elections. Although it surprised many readers, the claim is not a fact.

Origin of Story

On 29 July 2016 Conservative101 website conservative101.com published an article titled “Tom Hanks Backs Donald Trump, Destroys Hollywood Libs Who Criticize Him With THESE 9 Heroic Words,” saying Hanks plans to vote for Republican nominee Donald Trump in November Presidential elections. The reason stated; Tom Hanks supports visionary leadership of a President like Trump, as Hanks is concerned about the state of America after all the damage Barack Obama has caused it. At the end, the article also mentions a supposed comment of Tom Hanks referring to Trump election:

“America’s going to be fine. We’re the greatest, most resilient nation in the history of, of civilized, in all of civilization. We’ve worked ourselves out of holes many, many times over and over again.”

Screenshot of related article on Conservative101 website

Conservative101 website appears to publish latest ‘news,’ but does not carry any credible information about their source of information or a Disclaimer for their website. And notably, the alleged comment of Tom Hanks in an interview referring to Donald Trump is in fact misquoted from a different context.

Actual Comment of Tom Hanks

In an interview with CBS This Morning on 21 April 2016, while talking about his new movie “A Hologram for the King,” Tom Hanks also spoke about the 2016 Presidential race. Responding to the growing likelihood that Republican front-runner Donald Trump may clinch the nomination, Hanks said, “There wasn’t a pollster or a political hack in the country that said that Dewey wasn’t going to be the winner“. “Look, American’s going to be fine. We’re the greatest, most resilient nation… in all of civilization. We’ve worked ourselves out of holes many, many times over and over again,” he added.

So contrary to the claim, Tom Hanks was not supporting or backing Donald Trump for U.S. President, the actor was in fact mocking Trump’s Make America Great Again slogan in late April 2016. Tom Hanks, along with other celebrities like Katy Perry, Eva Longoria, George Clooney, and Oprah Winfrey, has been the supporter of Trump’s rival Hillary Clinton for U.S. President. In 2015, Hanks even donated $2,700 to Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

Therefore the claim that Tom Hanks backs Republican nominee Donald Trump for American President in 2016 is just a hoax.