President Donald Trump has cancelled the Pentagon’s plan to livestream the execution of Nidal Hasan, the former Army major convicted of killing 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009, announcing on Thursday that the firing-squad execution will go ahead on December 3 but “will not be streamed”.
The president announced the reversal on Truth Social on Thursday. He wrote that broadcasting the execution “might have been a strong deterrent for the World to witness how America deals with Terrorists and SCUM like Hasan”, but conceded that “many very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die, through streaming, or through any other visual device”. The immediate families of the victims, he added, would be allowed to witness the execution in person: “They deserve to witness JUSTICE!”
A reversal after bipartisan criticism
The reversal ends days of fierce debate. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth had said last week that the public would be able to watch the execution, and a Pentagon official later confirmed the livestream plan, according to reports. The proposal drew criticism from both parties, as well as retired military officers and religious leaders. Vice-President JD Vance said he would not watch it and publicly doubted the broadcast would happen.
The clash over whether the public should witness state punishment echoes broader tensions about how far governments go in the name of deterrence, a subject familiar from Washington’s high-stakes battles over international courts. The Pentagon is not the only American institution facing scrutiny over surveillance and secrecy this month, as federal investigators probe a hidden recorder found inside a tech giant’s boardroom.
What comes next
Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, murdered 13 unarmed service members and injured 32 others at Fort Hood, Texas, on November 5, 2009, in the deadliest non-combat attack on a US military installation. He was convicted at his 2013 court-martial and sentenced to death. The December execution would be the first by the US military in more than 60 years; military executions require presidential approval and appellate review, according to reports.
The episode shows how quickly an idea can move from offhand suggestion to near-policy in this administration — Hegseth floated it in an interview, the Pentagon confirmed it, and days later the president overruled it after a bipartisan backlash. For the victims’ families, the question of closure remains; for everyone else, the argument about deterrence versus decency will outlast December.
