Trump reverses Pentagon plan to livestream Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan's firing squad execution
President Trump announced Thursday that the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, convicted in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting that killed 13 people and wounded 32 others, will not be livestreamed. In a Truth Social post, Trump said immediate family members of victims may attend in person, writing "They deserve to witness JUSTICE!" The execution is scheduled for Dec. 3 by firing squad, which would be the first U.S. military execution in more than 65 years.
The announcement reversed a position Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had stated publicly just one day earlier. Speaking to Real America's Voice on Wednesday, Hegseth said the Pentagon would "make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public, because people need to understand that there's serious consequences for these types of things." Pentagon officials had subsequently confirmed Thursday that the execution would be livestreamed, before Trump's post withdrew that plan.
In his Truth Social post, Trump acknowledged a potential case for broadcasting the event, writing that streaming the execution "might have been a strong deterrent for the World to witness how America deals with Terrorists and SCUM like Hasan," but said it would not go forward because "many very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die." Trump also used the post to criticize the Obama administration's handling of pre-attack intelligence, referencing intercepted communications between Hasan and radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki that, Trump said, were not identified as a threat.
The reversal followed bipartisan criticism of Hegseth's proposal. According to the New York Times, Democrats and Republicans in Congress both rejected the livestream plan, and Vice President JD Vance expressed doubt, saying "I'm not going to be watching it" and "I don't know that that's actually going to happen." Fox News noted that the last U.S. military execution took place in April 1961, when Army Pvt. John Bennett was hanged, and that Hasan could still seek to delay proceedings through a habeas corpus petition in civilian court.