President Donald Trump has privately expressed misgivings about livestreaming the Dec. 3 firing-squad execution of Nidal Hasan, the former Army major who murdered 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009. Four people who have spoken with the president told Axios as much. The doubts suggest the Pentagon’s plan to broadcast what would be the first livestreamed execution in U.S. history may not survive a wave of criticism from both parties.
A livestream “might not happen,” Trump told one confidant who does not work in the administration and shared the comment with Axios. “He didn’t sound particularly enthusiastic” about webcasting the execution, the source said. “That’s why he’s calling around, doing the Trump thing, asking people what they think.” A senior administration official said Trump has been deluged with “negative input” from a bipartisan group of lawmakers and from advisers inside and outside the White House.
Hegseth Announces a Public Broadcast
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the plan Thursday, Oct. 8, in an interview on Real America’s Voice. “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,” Hegseth said. He said the execution would take place at Fort Hood at 1 p.m. on Dec. 3, and the Pentagon later confirmed it intended to make the proceedings available to the public.
The proposal drew immediate condemnation at home and abroad. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said he supports Hasan’s death sentence but called a livestream “beyond disgusting.” The United Nations and Amnesty International also condemned the idea, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops denounced it as a promotion of a culture of death. Hasan would be the first person in the United States whose execution was livestreamed.
Trump’s Shifting Public Position
In the days that followed, Trump’s public stance moved noticeably. Early Friday evening, he was unequivocal. “Absolutely, I approve,” Trump told reporters.
Later that night, his tone was more measured. “They want to do that because they want to set an example. I wasn’t involved in that decision, but I understand the decision,” he said.
By Saturday, Trump had taken control of the question. “There are two thoughts: Don’t show it and show it. ’Cause you know, by showing it, maybe other people won’t be doing what he did. So I’ll make a decision, ultimately. I know what the military would like to do, but we’ll make a decision,” the president told reporters at the White House.
Vance Signals Skepticism
Vice President JD Vance has indicated where he believes the decision is headed, according to a source who spoke to Axios. Speaking to reporters in Ohio on Friday, Vance said, “I don’t know if that’s actually going to happen.” “I’m not going to be watching it,” he said, and he has privately repeated the first remark to others.
The disagreement is the latest point of friction between Vance and Hegseth. The two have been on opposite sides over the use of military force in Yemen and Iran and over the leadership of the Army. Advisers say the men have a good relationship.
Competing Pressures Inside the White House
Trump, Vance and the rest of the administration are united in supporting Hasan’s execution. The president is weighing competing concerns about how it is carried out. “The president wants the bastard to pay, and a public execution might be that extra humiliation [Hasan] deserves,” a confidant who spoke with him said. “At the same time, he doesn’t want to make the guy a martyr.”
Another confidant put the concern in blunter terms. “This is an old dude in a wheelchair we’re shooting. We want to livestream that?” the person said. Hasan, 56, was permanently injured when he was shot during his capture.
A Break From Centuries of Practice
Whether at the state or federal level, executions in the United States are typically witnessed only by family members or select media, and none has been livestreamed. Public executions in town squares were discontinued in the 1930s. When Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was executed in 2001, loved ones and bombing survivors could watch only through a private closed-circuit telecast.
A military execution is rarer still. Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, only the president can approve one, and the Pentagon announced Trump’s approval on Oct. 5. If carried out, Hasan’s execution would be the first by the U.S. military since 1961, when the sentence was carried out by hanging. The last known military execution by firing squad took place in 1945.
The 2009 Attack and the Road to Execution
Yelling “Allahu Akbar!” Hasan fatally shot 13 people, including a pregnant woman, and wounded 32 others on Nov. 5, 2009, as soldiers lined up for medical checks at Fort Hood’s Soldier Readiness Processing Center. It was the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11. A special Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee report later criticized the military for “political correctness” that blinded authorities to the major’s increasingly clear Islamist radicalization.
A military jury convicted Hasan and sentenced him to death in 2013, and his final appeal was rejected in April 2025. He is one of four prisoners on the military’s death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Legal experts have said a habeas corpus petition in federal court could delay the execution by years.
What Comes Next
The outcome of the dispute is not in doubt. Hasan will be executed unless something unexpected happens, and the only real question is whether private citizens with no connection to the case will be able to watch. “If I had to bet, I would bet the president doesn’t authorize this,” one administration official said. “But I’m not gonna get ahead of the boss and try to predict what he’ll do.”
“Hasan will be executed for his crimes,” the official said, “and that’s what matters.”