Trump Calls Off Livestream of Fort Hood Shooter's Execution; Dec. 3 Firing Squad to Proceed Without a Broadcast
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social on October 15 that the U.S. military will not livestream the execution of former Army major Nidal Hasan, reversing a plan put forward last week by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Streaming the execution “might have been a strong deterrent,” Trump wrote, but “many very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die.” Hasan “will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed,” he said, adding that the immediate families of the victims may attend in person if they choose.
Hasan is scheduled to be executed by firing squad at Fort Hood, Texas, on December 3. On November 5, 2009, Hasan, then an Army psychiatrist with the rank of major, opened fire at Fort Hood, killing 13 people and wounding 32 in one of the deadliest attacks on a U.S. military base. Hasan, who was shot and paralyzed, was sentenced to death by a military court in 2013. If carried out, it would be the U.S. Army's first execution in 65 years.
Hegseth announced the livestream plan around October 8, saying the public needed to see the “serious consequences,” but the proposal drew bipartisan criticism from lawmakers, victims' families and religious leaders. Vice President JD Vance said he would not watch; House Speaker Mike Johnson said he would raise lawmakers' concerns with the White House, amid fears the footage could be used as extremist propaganda. An ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll released October 15 found 80 percent of U.S. adults opposed broadcasting the execution, including 64 percent of Republicans.
Trump, who had previously approved Hasan's execution, called him a “traitor” in the post and criticized the FBI's handling, under the Obama administration, of Hasan's emails with a radical cleric as a “key intelligence failure.”
Sources: CNN, The Times and the Daily Caller, October 15.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 尼达尔·哈桑2009年美国陆军官方肖像 / Official U.S. Army portrait of Nidal Hasan, 2009. Photo: U.S. Army, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- 2026-10-06US Military to Carry Out Firing Squad Execution for First Time in 81 Years
- 2026-10-10Pentagon to Livestream Fort Hood Gunman Hasan's Firing-Squad Execution on Dec. 3, Drawing Bishops' and Lawmakers' Condemnation
- 2026-10-11Trump Says He Will Decide Whether Military Execution of Fort Hood Shooter Is Livestreamed
- 2026-10-11DHS Secretary Mullin Defends Livestream of Fort Hood Shooter's Execution on Face the Nation: No Sympathy for Hasan
- 2026-10-15Trump Calls Off Livestream of Fort Hood Shooter's Execution; Dec. 3 Firing Squad to Proceed Without a BroadcastThis story
