President Donald Trump said Thursday that the government will not livestream the firing-squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan — canceling a plan announced last week by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
While publicly streaming Hasan’s execution “might have been a strong deterrent for the World to witness how America deals with Terrorists and SCUM like Hasan,” Trump said in a Truth Social post, “many very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die, through streaming, or through any other visual device.”
“He will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed,” the president said, adding that family members of Hasan’s victims will be able to view the Dec. 3 execution in person.
The Army sentenced Hasan, a former major, to death in 2013 for killing 13 people and injuring 32 others at Texas’ Fort Hood Army base in 2009.
Trump’s announcement follows widespread pushback from Republicans and Democrats alike after Hegseth said last week that Hasan is “going to get a firing squad of soldiers, and we’ll make sure that people are able to watch it.” Some critics cited concerns about reinforcing Hasan’s stated desire for martyrdom; others argued that making the execution public was contrary to American values.
Signs that the plan could be reversed emerged quickly. A day after the defense secretary’s announcement, Vice President JD Vance said of the livestream, “I don’t know that’s going to happen.”
Speaking to reporters at the White House over the weekend, Trump said he would make the final call.
“There are two thoughts: don’t show it and show it. ’Cause you know, by showing it, maybe other people won’t be doing what he did. So I’ll make a decision ultimately. I know what the military would like to do, but I’ll make a decision,” the president said.
In an interview with CBS News earlier this week, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said he was concerned that a video of Hasan’s execution could be used by future terrorists as a recruiting tool.
“We’ve got to think through the policy implications of all that,” he said, adding, “I wouldn’t be watching it if it was aired.”
The speaker also said that he needed to convey to the White House the views of his Republican colleagues in Congress, saying, “Not everybody is in favor of the idea.”
The U.S. military last conducted an execution in 1961, when it hanged Army Pvt. John Bennett after he was convicted of raping and attempting to kill an 11-year-old girl in Austria. The military last executed someone by firing squad in 1945, when it put Pvt. Eddie Slovik to death after he was court-martialed for desertion during World War II.