Trump cancels Hegseth’s plan to livestream Fort Hood shooter’s execution
President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the forthcoming execution of a former U.S. Army psychiatrist who killed 13 colleagues at Fort Hood, Texas, will not be livestreamed, upending a controversial plan that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth unveiled last week.
Nidal Malik Hasan will still be put to death by firing squad, but “this event will not be streamed,” Trump said in a social media post.
“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 but, many very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die, through streaming, or through any other visual device,” Trump said.
The decision, announced less than three weeks before the midterm elections, marks a significant rebuke of a senior Cabinet official whom Trump has stuck with through numerous controversies despite flagging support for Hegseth from within the Republican Party.
Hegseth touted his livestream plan on social media last Thursday, and it nearly immediately faced significant backlash, including from many of the administration biggest allies. Vice President JD Vance and House Speak Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) both indicated they did not intend to watch the event, if it was to move forward, and Trump himself had suggested over the weekend that he would review the issue, an indication that he was not yet sold on the idea.
A Trump administration official said after the president’s social media post Thursday that they “can say with absolute certainty the White House was caught off guard” by Hegseth’s announcement last week. The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the news media, said that many officials close to Hegseth also appeared to be surprised.
Spokespeople for Trump and Hegseth’s team at the Pentagon did not respond to questions on Wednesday about whether the secretary had apprised Trump of his plan before announcing it. They did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday, either.
The execution has been scheduled for Dec. 3 at Fort Hood, though it’s unclear if an appeal from Hasan could complicate that timeline.
A former Army major, he was convicted of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of premeditated attempted murder following his Nov. 5, 2009, assault on U.S. soldiers who were preparing for an overseas deployment.
Hasan was shot by policing responding to the attack and paralyzed. A U.S.-born Muslim, he has previously described launching the assault after a period of religious radicalization and watching how the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were proceeding.
About 8 in 10 Americans were opposed to livestreaming the execution, with a narrow majority of 53 percent supporting putting Hasan to death by firing squad, according to a nationwide poll released earlier Thursday by The Washington Post, ABC News and Ipsos.
Those opposed to the livestreaming plan included a majority of nearly every demographic and political group surveyed, including people who support Hasan’s execution by firing squad, the poll found.
Amy B Wang and Alauna Safarpour contributed to this report.
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