US President Donald Trump announced that the December 3 firing-squad execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, the former Army psychiatrist who killed 13 people and injured 32 at Fort Hood in 2009, will not be televised, reversing plans discussed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to livestream the execution.
Hegseth’s proposal had drawn condemnation from the UN human rights office, human rights groups and Republican lawmakers.
President Trump described Hasan on Truth Social as “a very bad and evil man, who killed 13 people, including a pregnant soldier, who died, along with her unborn son, and injured, very seriously, 32 more innocent people.”
After alleging that the Federal Bureau of Investigation under the Obama administration had evidence of communications between Hasan and an extremist cleric before the shooting, President Trump addressed the proposed broadcast.
“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.”
He added, “He will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed. That said, the execution may be viewed in person by the immediate families of the victims, if they so choose. They deserve to witness JUSTICE!”
Hegseth told podcaster Jack Posobiec aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln last week that the execution would be public. He separately told Real America’s Voice that Hasan was “gonna get a firing squad of soldiers–as it should be.”
The UN human rights office told AFP that livestreaming the execution would be “tantamount to a public execution and would breach the absolute prohibition of torture.”
Outgoing Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said public executions belong to “oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan,” while Georgia GOP Rep. Austin Scott said “live-streaming executions is what jihadists do. America is better than that.”
Amnesty International documented 11 public executions in Iran in 2025 and six in Afghanistan. More than 2,700 executions were recorded across 17 countries last year.
The last public US execution was Rainey Bethea’s 1936 hanging. Hasan’s would be the US Army’s first execution of a soldier since World War II and the first death penalty imposed on an armed service member in 65 years.
