By President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the military’s planned firing-squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan will not be livestreamed — reversing a plan announced last week by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to broadcast the moment publicly.
Donald Trump (Credits: Variety)
Trump Reverses Hegseth’s Livestream Plan
Hegseth had announced earlier this month that Hasan’s execution — scheduled for December 3 — would be public, with the Pentagon later confirming it would be streamed online. The announcement drew bipartisan backlash, with critics on both sides warning the footage could be used to fuel radicalization, and Vice President JD Vance saying he would not watch it even if it went ahead.
In a Truth Social post on Thursday morning, Trump said streaming the execution “might have been a strong deterrent for the World to witness how America deals with Terrorists and SCUM like Hasan” — but added that “many very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die.” He confirmed the execution itself remains on schedule, writing: “He will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed.” The immediate families of the victims will be allowed to watch in person “if they so choose,” Trump added, saying “They deserve to witness JUSTICE!”
The Fort Hood Case and the FBI Controversy
Hasan, a former Army major, was convicted of killing 13 people and seriously wounding 32 more in the November 2009 attack at the Fort Hood military base. If carried out as scheduled, it would be the military’s first execution since 1961 — and its first by firing squad since 1945.
Trump’s post also revived criticism of the FBI’s handling of intercepted communications between Hasan and the Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki before the attack, claiming agents under President Barack Obama concluded the emails were not a threat — an episode later viewed as a key intelligence failure. CNN has reported that the president privately remarked he did not initially know Hasan is paralyzed from the waist down, while officials stressed Trump remains firmly behind the firing-squad decision itself.
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Source: Variety — read the full story there.
