The president says the execution of the Fort Hood terrorist attacker will not be public after all.
War Secretary Pete Hegseth had recommended the public execution by military firing squad of Nidal Hasan, the admitted terrorist killer of 13 people plus an unborn baby in the Nov. 2009 shooting near Killeen, Texas. The execution is scheduled for December 3.
'He will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed.'
The decision to livestream the event was praised by many, but some took exception, including Catholic leaders and critics of capital punishment.
On Thursday President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that the execution will not be public.
"I think streaming the execution for all to see might have been a strong deterrent for the World to witness how America deals with Terrorists and SCUM like Hasan," wrote the president, "but, 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."
He added that the execution can be viewed by the families of the victims if they choose to do so.
"They deserve to witness JUSTICE!" he concluded.
Among those critical of livestreaming the execution was Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana, who said the livestreaming video would become a recruiting tool for other terrorists. Vice President JD Vance said he would not watch the livestreamed execution.
"We live in a society that already diminishes death so much. I don’t want it on TikTok," said Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck, who went on to say livestreaming the execution would "rot our souls."
Many expressed gratitude that the president was willing to listen to others' voices and change his mind.
"Thanks to @POTUS for the right decision not to livestream the execution of the terrorist, Nidal M. Hasan, who unjustly murdered 14 people at Fort Hood. This decision at least stops us from taking a step deeper into the violent culture of death by exploiting Hasan and his victims’ survivors," responded Bishop Michael Olson of the Diocese of Fort Worth in Texas.
"This is clearly the right choice and President Trump should be commended for making it," replied theologian and academic Matthew Lee Anderson of Baylor University, an evangelical Protestant Christian.
"A great step in the right direction," responded Father Matthew P. Schneider, a Catholic priest and moral theologian.
"Thank you, Mr. President," wrote Father Aquinas Guilbeau, moral theologian and Dominican priest.
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"Trump overrides Hegseth to cancel live-stream of public firing squad execution. Sanity prevails momentarily," said Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.).
Father Joshua J. Whitfield, a prominent Catholic priest and columnist who had said a public execution would have been "perverse," appeared to approve of the change as well.
An ABC News poll found that 53% of respondents approved of the execution of Nidal Hasan, but only 18% supported livestreaming the execution and 80% were opposed to it.
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