Trump scraps plan to livestream firing squad execution of Nidal Hasan after widespread criticism

U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and President Donald Trump outside the White House on Oct. 6, 2026. Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

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U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday canceled plans to livestream the firing squad execution of a convicted military base mass shooter, reversing a widely condemned move by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

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The plan to make Nidal Hasan’s execution public was opposed at home and abroad, with U.S. Democratic and Republican politicians, the Catholic Church and the United Nations all expressing outrage.

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The cancellation is a blow to Hegseth, who is already under fire over the stalemated Iran war and its fallout, which are weighing on Trump’s Republican Party ahead of November midterm elections.

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Hasan “will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.

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The U.S. president indicated he did not personally oppose the streaming plan, saying it “might have been a strong deterrent for the World to witness how America deals with Terrorists and SCUM like Hasan.”

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But “many very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die,” Trump said, adding that the execution could still be viewed in person by immediate family of the victims if they wanted to do so.

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Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Hegseth and Trump had spoken before the announcement.

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

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Hasan’s execution — scheduled for December 3 at Fort Hood, Texas, where he gunned down 13 people in 2009 — is set to be the first by a U.S. military firing squad since 1945.

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Last week, Hegseth said that “we’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public,” later confirming that the plan was to livestream the execution.

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

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Backlash to the plan quickly grew following Hegseth’s announcement.

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The United Nations said streaming the execution would amount to “torture,” while the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said it was a “barbaric promotion of a culture of death,” and both Australia and Britain’s prime ministers described it as “abhorrent.”

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A Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll released Thursday found that eight in 10 Americans opposed livestreaming the execution.

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Lawmakers from both main U.S. parties have said they were against it, and dozens of retired U.S. military officers expressed opposition to the planned broadcast in an open letter.

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It “will taint the honor of the military that employs it, and a nation that allows it,” and “will ensure that Hasan becomes a martyr,” said the officers, including more than 40 generals and admirals.