Trump Cancels Fort Hood Shooter Execution Livestream — SkimNews
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- Trump reversed course and cancelled the livestream of Nidal Hasan's firing-squad execution, posting on Truth Social that "many very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die" despite saying the day prior he "absolutely" approved the plan.
- Nidal Hasan, a former US army psychiatrist, fatally shot 13 unarmed military personnel and injured 32 others at Fort Hood, Texas on November 5, 2009 — the deadliest non-combat attack on an American military base — and said at his 2013 court martial he was "protecting Muslims and the Taliban in Afghanistan."
- The execution remains scheduled for December 3, 2026, marking the first US military execution in over 60 years; victims' families can still attend in person, but the public livestream is off.
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had publicly defended the livestream as a deterrent, saying "people need to understand that there's serious consequences for these types of things"; after Trump's reversal, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Hegseth "supports the President's decision, and they are completely aligned."
- Hasan's lawyer John Galligan said the cancellation "comes as no surprise," called the initial livestream "a dumb decision" that violated the Army's own regulation, and noted Hasan is paralyzed from the chest down — something Trump "allegedly didn't even know" when he approved the airing.
- The United Nations called the livestream plans "abhorrent"; Amnesty International data cited in the article noted that of more than 2,700 executions across 17 countries last year, only two nations did so publicly — Iran (11) and Afghanistan (6).
- Vice-President JD Vance cast doubt on the livestream from the start and said he would not watch it, foreshadowing the bipartisan skepticism that ultimately forced the reversal.
Why it matters: The December 3 execution proceeds, with victims' families still able to attend in person, but Hasan's lawyer argues the livestream plan already 'permanently' stained the military justice system by violating Army regulations. Trump initially approved the public airing without apparently knowing Hasan is paralyzed from the chest down — a detail that underscores how thin the vetting was before the Pentagon unveiled the plan.
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