President Donald Trump announced Thursday that the U.S. military will not livestream the firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan, reversing a plan disclosed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth days earlier. In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote that while Hasan "will die, as scheduled, by firing squad," the event "will not be streamed."
Trump acknowledged the deterrent value of a public execution, stating that livestreaming "might have been a strong deterrent for the World to witness how America deals with Terrorists and SCUM like Hasan." However, he said that "many very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die, through streaming, or through any other visual device." The president added that immediate family members of Hasan's victims will be permitted to view the execution in person if they choose to attend.
The execution is scheduled for December 3 at Fort Hood near Killeen, Texas. Hasan, a former Army major and psychiatrist, was convicted in 2013 of killing 13 people and wounding 32 others during a mass shooting on November 5, 2009, at the Soldier Readiness Processing Center at the base. Hasan told jurors at his court-martial that he carried out the shooting to stop soldiers from deploying to Afghanistan and killing Muslims.
Hegseth announced the livestream plan on October 8 in an interview with conservative media outlet Real America's Voice, saying the execution would be "public" and that soldiers would "make sure that people are able to watch it" because "people need to understand that there's serious consequences." That announcement caught Trump, senior White House officials, and Army officials by surprise, according to officials. Trump initially expressed support for the livestream, but reversed course after learning more details about the case, including that Hasan was paralyzed from the waist down—a fact Trump was reportedly not aware of initially.
The plan to broadcast the execution drew swift bipartisan backlash. Vice President JD Vance said he would not watch a livestream if it occurred. House Speaker Mike Johnson told CBS News that colleagues worried the video "would be a recruiting tool for future terrorists." Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell said that Hegseth and Trump spoke before the president's announcement and that "the Secretary supports the President's decision, and they are completely aligned."
The execution would be historic for the U.S. military. The last military execution occurred in 1961, when Army Private John Bennett was hanged. A firing squad execution would be the first by the military since 1945, when Private Eddie Slovik was executed for desertion during World War II. The military does not typically use firing squads; lethal injection is the method specified in current military execution regulations, and Army officials had spent months planning for Hasan's execution to take place at the Federal Facility in Terre Haute, Indiana, by lethal injection. Pentagon officials did not explain why firing squad was selected instead.
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights had warned that livestreaming an execution "is tantamount to a public execution and would breach the absolute prohibition of torture." If the livestream plan had proceeded, the United States would have joined a small group of nations conducting public executions; Amnesty International reported that Afghanistan and Iran were the only two nations known to have conducted public executions in the previous year.
