Trump Cancels Plan to Livestream Fort Hood Shooter's Execution by Firing Squad

WASHINGTON. President Donald Trump said on Thursday, Oct 15, 2026, that the execution of Fort Hood gunman Nidal Hasan will not be livestreamed, reversing a Pentagon plan that had drawn criticism from both parties, from victims' families and from religious leaders.

Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, killed 13 people and wounded 32 others at Fort Hood in Texas on Nov 5, 2009, in the largest mass murder at a US military installation. A military jury sentenced him to death in 2013. He is scheduled to be executed by firing squad at Fort Hood on Dec 3, which would be the first US military execution since 1961.

Trump wrote on social media that streaming the execution might have served as a deterrent, but that many people would rather not watch a man die on a screen. "He will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed," he wrote. He added that the immediate families of the victims may view the execution in person if they choose.

A plan that lasted one week

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the livestream plan on Oct 8. He said the public should be able to watch, so people would understand the consequences for attacks of this kind. The announcement surprised officials across the Pentagon and the Army, CNN reported, and the criticism started at once.

Vice President JD Vance said he would not watch and doubted the plan would go ahead. House Speaker Mike Johnson said he would not watch either and noted that some of his colleagues had concerns. Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who oversees Catholic pastoral care for US service members, objected, and Pope Leo condemned capital punishment in all its forms.

The families of the victims opposed the broadcast as well. One relative told The Times that a livestream would turn tragedy into entertainment.

The public was against it

A poll by ABC News, The Washington Post and Ipsos, released on Thursday, found that 80 percent of US adults opposed livestreaming the execution, including 64 percent of Republicans. The numbers left the plan with little support anywhere: not in Congress, not among the families, and not in the country.

Hasan has been paralyzed from the chest down since the day of the attack, when responders shot him. CNN reported this week that Trump and his advisers had been debating whether to call the broadcast off, and that the president had not known in advance that Hegseth would announce it.

What happens on Dec 3

The execution itself is not in question. Trump has said repeatedly that Hasan deserves it, and the firing squad is still scheduled for Dec 3 at Fort Hood, at the same base where the 2009 attack took place. What changed on Thursday is only the audience. The execution will now follow the standard practice for US executions: a small number of witnesses, including victims' families who choose to attend, and no broadcast.

No other country is known to televise or livestream judicial executions, Reuters noted, and the United States has not staged a public execution since the 1930s. For one week, the Pentagon planned to break with that practice. On Thursday, the president restored it.