President Trump has ruled out livestreaming Nidal Hasan’s December 3 firing squad execution, reversing a Pentagon plan that drew condemnation from Catholic bishops, the United Nations, and Hillary Clinton.
President Donald Trump announced Thursday that the scheduled military execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan will proceed by firing squad but will not be streamed to the public.
Breitbart News reported Trump’s decision after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had earlier said Americans would be able to watch the punishment carried out.
Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, killed 13 people and wounded 32 at the Texas military base in 2009 while shouting “Allahu Akbar.” He is set to die December 3 in what would be the first U.S. military execution in more than 60 years.
Trump went on social media to describe the killer as a traitor and a very bad and evil man, then made the policy call plain.
"He will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed,"
Trump stated. He also said airing the event “might have been a strong deterrent for the World to witness how America deals with Terrorists and SCUM like Hasan.”
Before Trump’s announcement, Hegseth told the public the execution would be viewable. He framed it as a deliberate message about consequences.
"We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it. That it’s public,"
Hegseth said. He added, “Because people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things.”
That stance matched earlier coverage showing the Pentagon moving toward a public spectacle for the first military execution in decades, as detailed when Hegseth said America will watch the Fort Hood killer face the firing squad.
The last U.S. public execution took place in the 1930s. Hasan’s case would also mark the first military execution by firing squad since World War II.
Fox News reported that immediate family members of the 13 killed may still attend the December 3 execution in person even though the livestream is off the table. Hasan received a death sentence in 2013.
The livestream idea drew sharp pushback from international groups and domestic political figures. The United Nations and Amnesty International condemned the original plan.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops labeled it “a barbaric promotion of a culture of death.” Hillary Clinton also called the idea “barbaric.”
National Review detailed further comments from Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, who said the public execution of even someone who has done grave harm “will only further undermine the moral fabric of our nation and be a blight on the conscience of its people.” Coakley demanded the decision be reconsidered.
Those objections landed while the administration was still preparing the first military capital punishment since 1961, scheduled at Fort Hood itself on Dec. 3, 2026.
Earlier reporting also tracked how Trump cleared the Army firing squad path for Hasan after years of delay.
Even as the livestream debate raged, senior officials rejected soft treatment of the killer. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin defended the broader idea of public accountability on Face the Nation before Trump shut down the stream.
RealClearPolitics carried Mullin’s argument that no one is forced to watch and that he saw no elevated homeland security risk from the event. Mullin said he had no sympathy for Hasan and gave “absolutely zero thought to the way that this man dies.”
Mullin stressed that attacking America brings fitting punishment. He dismissed concerns from some senators that a camera would create a martyr or hand terrorists an audience.
Political fights over the original plan had already escalated, including coverage of how Mark Kelly demanded Hegseth’s ouster over the livestream proposal.
Trump’s final call leaves the sentence intact while removing the broadcast. The killer still faces the firing squad on the date set. Victims’ families keep the option to be present. The public does not get a live feed.
Separate reporting had already noted Trump distancing himself from the camera plan itself, including when Trump said he had no role in originating the livestream approach.
Hasan’s 2009 rampage remains one of the deadliest attacks on a U.S. military installation by one of its own. Thirteen service members and others died. Thirty-two were wounded. The shooter used an Islamist battle cry while murdering people in uniform on American soil.
After more than a decade and a half of legal process, the military justice system reached a death sentence. The December date would end the longest stretch without a military execution in modern memory. Trump kept that schedule and dropped only the streaming element that had become the political flashpoint.
Earlier Pentagon messaging had locked in the public-watch posture, as when the Pentagon said the Dec. 3 execution will stream live before the White House reversed course.
The practical result is straightforward. Justice for the Fort Hood dead moves forward by firing squad. The spectacle does not. Critics who called any public viewing barbaric lose the camera fight they wanted, yet the sentence they also opposed still stands.
America does not owe a mass murderer a worldwide stage, and it does not owe his victims another delay. The firing squad will do its work on schedule. That is the deterrent that matters.
