Trump shuts down Pentagon plan for public execution: 5 takeaways

President Trump put an abrupt end on Thursday to questions about whether the Pentagon would really livestream the firing squad execution of the Fort Hood shooter, former Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan.

In a Truth Social post, he said the public execution could serve as a deterrent but didn’t want to subject “good and well-meaning” people to the sight. Critics have also warned about the video becoming a tool for terrorist propaganda.

Trump had previously sent mixed signals on the livestreaming plan, and others in and around the White House — including Vice President Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) — said they wouldn’t watch it.

A poll released Thursday showed Americans were overwhelmingly against the idea.

Hasan, an American-born Muslim, killed 13 people and injured 32 others when he opened fire in 2009 at Fort Hood, Texas. He said he had “switched sides” in the U.S.-Afghanistan war.

Here are five takeaways from the initial announcement and Trump’s reversal:

Hegseth made the shock announcement a week ago

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the Dec. 3 execution of Hasan would be open to the public to watch. No legal execution has ever been broadcast in the U.S., and the last public execution was more than 60 years ago.

Hegseth has long wanted “the harshest lawful punishment” for Hasan. He told reporters in September 2025 that he had asked Trump for final approval for the military execution.

“Of course, we’re going to do it at Fort Hood. We’re going to do it on a Thursday, we’re going to do it at 1 o’clock, which is when he did it, and it’s going to be soldiers with rifles executing the firing squad,” Hegseth told Real America’s Voice on the USS Abraham Lincoln in an interview Oct. 8.

“We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public, because people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things,” he said.

Army rules allow for at least two media outlets to be present for the execution.

Trump issued a reversal of course Thursday, as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle urged the administration to reconsider.

Trump said that while he thinks the streaming of the execution “might have been a strong deterrent for the World to witness how America deals with Terrorists and SCUM like Hasan,” “many very good and well-meaning people would rather not watch him die, through streaming, or through any other visual device.”

The president called Hasan a “traitor [and] very bad and evil man.”

He blamed the Obama administration for a “key intelligence failure” after investigators concluded that emails Hasan had sent were not a threat.

Trump said Hasan will die as scheduled, but only immediate family of the victims can watch in person if they choose to.

“They deserve to witness JUSTICE!” he wrote.

Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement that Trump and Hegseth had spoken about the decision ahead of the president’s Truth Social post.

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

Cool responses from Trump and Vance earlier this week

The reversal came after Trump and Vance appeared openly skeptical of the plan in comments to reporters over the past week.

“We’re looking at it,” Trump told reporters earlier this week.

Axios reported Monday that Trump had privately told someone close to him that the livestream “might not happen.”

Vance told reporters last week that he wouldn’t watch it but defended the execution.

“So, whatever the controversy is about the method of the execution, I hope that people don’t forget that this is a guy who brutally murdered a lot of innocent people,” Vance said.

“Now, that said, I mean, look, if it’s ultimately livestreamed, I’m not going to be watching it,” he added.

Hegseth stirs frustration on both sides of the aisle

The livestream idea was criticized by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, adding to growing frustration with Hegseth.

Johnson, a key ally of the administration, said he wouldn’t watch it and that some colleagues in Congress were against the idea as well.

“The concern would be that it would create a video that would be a recruiting tool for future terrorists,” Johnson said in a CBS News interview over the weekend.

“I need to tell the White House what some of my colleagues think about that, and not everybody’s in favor of the idea,” he said.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) was among a handful of Republicans who spoke out against the idea.

“There is no need to livestream any execution, including this one,” Murkowski said on the social platform X . “I would expect this from terrorists and dictators, but not here in America.”

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) called on the Trump administration to remove Hegseth over the plan.

“There is no doubt that Nidal Hasan is a murderer who took the lives of 13 people and injured dozens. He should face justice for that. But a public execution? Here in the United States?” Kelly wrote in a Friday post on X.

Hegseth has also angered lawmakers on both sides of the aisle with his purge of senior Pentagon officials and top generals who don’t align with his policies against diversity, equity and inclusion and “anti-woke” policies, as well as his role as a key champion of the Iran war.

Comes as Trump touts death penalty in speeches

Trump has taken to promoting the death penalty in his remarks.

At a rally in Vandalia, Ohio, on Oct. 3, Trump said Republicans will pass the death penalty for “large-scale drug dealers, human traffickers and anyone who ever kills a police or law enforcement official.”

Trump called the death penalty for Hasan “a very worthy way of going for him” when asked about it by reporters last week.

On Wednesday, Trump said people who leak information should be shot.

“Somebody leaked, some sleazebag. They ought to go to jail and be shot. For the rest of their life, they should be in jail,” Trump said at the rally in Bullhead City, Ariz., in an apparent reference to leaks surrounding airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

“In my opinion, leakers should be shot. In the old days, we used to shoot leakers,” he continued. “When they leak what time you’re going to attack a country, and the reason you’re attacking is really for defense because you don’t want them to have a weapon that can blow up millions of people in one shot.”

He also said reporters are “almost as bad as a leaker.”

On Thursday, Trump said he wanted to extend the death penalty to those who kill a first responder, like “anybody that murders a firefighter going up a ladder.”