Trump calls off livestream of Fort Hood attacker’s execution by firing squad

Trump Cancels Plan to Stream Fort Hood Gunman’s Execution

Ninoda.com – President Donald Trump has withdrawn plans to broadcast online the execution of former Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan, who was convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 32 others during the 2009 Fort Hood shooting in Texas.

Hasan is still scheduled to be executed by firing squad on 3 December 2026. The decision means the event will not be livestreamed publicly, although relatives of those killed will be permitted to attend in person if they choose.

“He will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.

The president said he had considered a public broadcast as a possible warning to terrorists, but concluded that many people would prefer not to witness the execution. He described Hasan as someone whose punishment should proceed, while changing course on the plan to make the death available for online viewing.

“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,” Trump said.

Trump also said the victims’ families deserved the option of seeing the sentence carried out.

“They deserve to witness JUSTICE!” he wrote.

Criticism of a Public Execution Broadcast

The Pentagon had announced the previous week that Hasan’s firing-squad execution would be broadcast online. The proposal quickly prompted objections from human rights advocates, legal observers and international bodies. The United Nations called the idea “abhorrent.”

Public executions are unusual internationally. More than 2,700 executions took place across 17 countries in the previous year, but only two countries were known to have carried out executions in public. Amnesty International documented 11 public executions in Iran during 2025 and six in Afghanistan.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth initially defended putting Hasan’s execution online. He argued that the public needed to understand the consequences of such crimes.

“People need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things,” Hegseth said.

Trump had earlier indicated that he supported the proposed broadcast. On Friday, he said he “absolutely” backed it, while also saying the Pentagon was still deciding how to proceed. He later cancelled the livestream after the criticism intensified.

A Pentagon spokesman, Sean Parnell, said Hegseth had spoken with Trump before the president announced the reversal.

“The Secretary supports the President’s decision, and they are completely aligned,” Parnell said.

A Historic Military Death Penalty Case

Hasan’s execution would be the first carried out by the US military in more than six decades. Under military law, a death sentence cannot proceed without presidential approval. It must also go through appellate review, in which a higher court examines whether the conviction and sentence can legally stand.

The case stems from the attack on 5 November 2009 at Fort Hood, a US military base in Texas. Hasan opened fire inside a busy medical building where soldiers preparing for deployment were waiting for medical checks and vaccinations. The shooting became the deadliest non-combat attack ever recorded at an American military installation.

Thirteen unarmed military personnel were killed. Thirty-two people were wounded. Hasan was later left paralysed from the chest down after being shot by police responding to the attack.

During his 2013 court martial, Hasan admitted he was the gunman. He apologised for “any mistakes” and said he believed he had been defending Muslims and the Taliban in Afghanistan from the US military.

Trump later called Hasan “totally nuts” and said the method of execution mattered less to him than ensuring the sentence was carried out.

“I really don’t care how he goes, as long as he goes, and I think that the death penalty is a very worthy way of going for him,” Trump said.

Legal Concerns Remain

John Galligan, a lawyer for Hasan who works mainly on civil matters, said the decision to abandon the broadcast was unsurprising. He criticised the original proposal and said it conflicted with the Army’s own regulations.

“It was initially a dumb decision and statement by Hegseth to livestream any execution – and it violated the Army’s own regulation,” Galligan said.

Galligan said Trump allegedly did not know Hasan was paralysed from the chest down when he initially approved the livestream proposal. He argued that ending the broadcast plan did not erase the harm caused by the earlier announcement.

“The damage has already been done – the Army is now just trying to clean up the mess,” Galligan said. “It will permanently remain a stain on our military justice system.”

It was not immediately clear whether Hasan had been told about Trump’s decision to reverse the livestream plan. The execution itself remains scheduled, subject to the required legal review and final approval process.

The cancellation separates two issues that had become intertwined: the military’s effort to carry out a death sentence for one of the most devastating attacks on US service members, and the question of whether punishment should be turned into a public online spectacle. For families affected by the Fort Hood killings, the case remains tied to a tragedy that occurred more than 17 years ago.