Trump isn’t fully on board with Hegseth’s desire for livestream of firing squad execution: report

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in

Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.

Behind closed doors, President Donald Trump has voiced reservations about live-streaming the firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan, according to a new report.

Trump has privately said that the public broadcast “might not happen,” an unnamed ally told Axios. “He didn’t sound particularly enthusiastic…That’s why he’s calling around, doing the Trump thing, asking people what they think.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced last Thursday that Americans would be able to watch the December 3 execution of Hasan, an Army psychiatrist convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 32 others at the Texas Army base in 2009.

“People need to understand there are serious consequences for these types of things,” Hegseth said.

The announcement was met with swift condemnation from Democrats and several Republicans, who called the plan “medieval,” “disgusting” and reminiscent of a dictatorship. Multiple world leaders denounced the move.

Public executions had largely disappeared in the United States by the 1930s, and U.S. officials have never publicly livestreamed a state-sanctioned killing.

Other sources, quoted by Axios, indicated the president remains undecided about the planned livestream after reportedly receiving a flood of “negative input.”

“The president wants the bastard to pay, and a public execution might be that extra humiliation [Hasan] deserves,” one source said. “At the same time, he doesn’t want to make the guy a martyr.”

“This is an old dude in a wheelchair we’re shooting,” another said. “We want to livestream that?” Hasan, 56, was left partially paralyzed after police shot him during the 2009 attack.

In recent days, Trump has publicly distanced himself from the planned livestream.

“I wasn’t involved in that decision, but I understand the decision,” he told reporters Friday evening.

“There are two thoughts: Don’t show it and show it,” he added on Saturday. “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.”

Vice President JD Vance also weighed in on the matter, telling reporters Friday: “I don’t know if that’s actually going to happen.” He added: “I’m not going to be watching it.”

An unnamed administration official echoed Vance’s skepticism, telling Axios: “If I had to bet, I would bet the president doesn’t authorize this.”

The official added: “Hasan will be executed for his crimes…and that’s what matters.”

Hasan, an Army major who was scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan in 2009, was convicted by a military jury of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. He was sentenced to death in 2013.

Hegseth recommended that Hasan be executed by firing squad, and Trump approved the request earlier this month. The defense secretary called the decision a “no brainer.” The last person executed by a U.S. military firing squad was Army Private Eddie Slovik in 1945.

The planned firing squad execution comes after two botched lethal injection attempts in death-row executions in Tennessee this year.

Some 52 percent of Americans favor the death penalty for a person convicted of murder, the lowest support in decades, according to a 2025 Gallup poll.

The Independent has contacted the White House for comment.

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in