Trump: Fort Hood Shooter Nidal Hasan's Firing-Squad Execution Will Not Be Livestreamed. Victims' Families May Watch in Person.
President Donald Trump said Thursday that the firing-squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan will go ahead on schedule but will not be livestreamed, ending a week of debate inside his administration over a plan Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had announced on Oct. 8.
"He will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed," Trump wrote on Truth Social at 10:06 a.m. Eastern. "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!"
Fox News reporter Bill Melugin first reported the announcement on X.
WHAT TRUMP SAID
Trump called Hasan "a former U.S. Army Major turned traitor" and "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."
He said he had seen a case for broadcasting the execution. "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 wrote.
The post also revisited the FBI's handling of emails between Hasan and the Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki before the 2009 attack. Trump wrote that investigators on a terrorism task force under President Barack Obama "concluded that Hasan's emails were not a threat" and that the episode "was later considered to be a key intelligence failure." That is his characterization of the record; TDFP has not independently reviewed the FBI's internal findings.
HOW THE NIDAL HASAN EXECUTION WAS SET
Hasan, an Army psychiatrist with the rank of major, opened fire on Nov. 5, 2009, in a medical processing building at Fort Hood, Texas, where soldiers were preparing for deployment. A court-martial panel found him guilty on Aug. 23, 2013, of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder, and sentenced him to death on Aug. 28, 2013, after deliberating less than two hours, according to the Army. The Supreme Court denied his final request for review on March 31, 2025.
Trump approved the death sentence on Oct. 2, 2026. The president has sole authority to approve a military death sentence, the Army said. On Oct. 6, Acting Secretary of the Army Adam Telle directed that Hasan be executed by firing squad at Fort Hood at 1 p.m. Central on Dec. 3, 2026, inside the 60-to-150-day window that Army Regulation 190-55 requires. The Army said the last service member executed by the military was Pvt. John A. Bennett, hanged at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, on April 13, 1961.
A WEEK OF PUSHBACK
Hegseth said on Oct. 8, in an interview with Real America's Voice aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, that the execution would be public: "We'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public." Pentagon officials then said it would be livestreamed, with details to follow, The Associated Press reported.
The plan drew objections across party lines. Trump said on Oct. 9 that he "absolutely" approved of it, then told reporters at the White House on Saturday that he had not made a final decision: "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," he said, according to NBC News. Vice President JD Vance said he was not sure the government would stream it and would not watch if it did. Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., wrote on X that "live-streaming executions is what jihadists do."
On Wednesday, 72 retired generals, admirals and other senior officers released an open letter asking the president and Congress to stop the stream, arguing it would turn "a solemn and grave punishment" into "a carnival for the enjoyment of voyeurs and spectators" and make Hasan "a martyr," the BBC reported. New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill, a Navy veteran, said this week that the prospect of soldiers being ordered to carry out a public firing-squad execution "keeps me up at night," The Lakewood Scoop reported.
Thursday's post settles the question for the administration. Military-law experts have said Hasan could still try to delay the execution through a habeas petition in civilian court.
Hold Everyone Accountable.
Sources: President Trump's Truth Social post (Oct. 15, 2026, 10:06 a.m. ET); U.S. Army Public Affairs, "Army Sets Execution Date for Convicted Murderer Nidal Hasan" (Oct. 7, 2026) and "Fort Hood shooter Hasan sentenced to death" (Sept. 3, 2013); The Associated Press via PBS NewsHour (Oct. 9, 2026); NBC News (Oct. 10, 2026); BBC News (Oct. 14, 2026); The Lakewood Scoop (Oct. 15, 2026).
Images: Cover photo of television crews at Fort Hood by Sgt. Ken Scar, U.S. Army, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; U.S. Army emblem, public domain.
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