The Pentagon planned to livestream Nidal Hasan’s Dec. 3 firing-squad execution. Trump now says the execution will proceed — but Americans will not be able to watch it online.
The Pentagon spent days preparing to do something the United States military had never done before: livestream an execution by firing squad. Donald Trump has now pulled the plug on the broadcast.
Trump announced Thursday that the December 3 execution of Nidal Malik Hasan will still proceed, but the event “will not be streamed.” Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people and wounding 32 others in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting.
The reversal directly overrides a plan promoted by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who had argued that broadcasting the execution could serve as a deterrent and show the world how the United States deals with terrorists.
Trump initially sounded enthusiastic. When reporters first asked whether he approved of the livestream idea, he said yes. Then came backlash from military families, religious leaders, Republicans, Democrats and people who support Hasan’s execution but still did not want the government turning it into online programming.
By Thursday, Trump had changed course. He said livestreaming the execution might have sent a strong message but acknowledged that many “good and well meaning people” did not want to watch Hasan die.
That may be the first time a presidential communications debate has boiled down to whether the official government content strategy should include a firing squad.
The reversal follows polling showing the livestream proposal was deeply unpopular. A Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll found roughly eight in ten Americans opposed broadcasting the execution, even though a narrow majority supported Hasan being executed by firing squad.
Criticism also came from Catholic leaders, military clergy and victims’ families. Some argued that a broadcast would turn punishment into spectacle and could be repurposed as extremist propaganda.
Hasan’s execution itself remains scheduled. He was sentenced to death after a military jury convicted him of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder.
If carried out, it would be the first U.S. military execution since 1961 and the first known military firing-squad execution since World War II. The execution can still face additional legal challenges before December.
The livestream cancellation is politically notable because it amounts to a public rebuke of Hegseth, one of Trump’s most loyal and protected Cabinet members. Hegseth had personally championed the broadcast as part of a broader tough-on-terror message.
Trump rarely enjoys reversing something after publicly endorsing it, but the opposition here crossed ideological lines. Conservatives who support capital punishment joined liberals and religious groups in arguing that an execution should not become a government-produced video event.
The administration now lands on a more traditional position: carry out the sentence, allow approved witnesses and press access under standard rules, but do not provide America with a livestream link.
Hasan is still scheduled to face the firing squad on December 3. The only thing being executed early was the Pentagon’s broadcast plan.
