President Trump Announces the Military Will Not Publicly Livestream Nidal Hasan’s Execution

On October 7, 2026, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced in a media interview that Nidal Hasan’s execution would be publicly live-streamed. The announcement quickly drew bipartisan criticism, with both Republicans and Democrats condemning the plan, some saying it would violate American values, fuel terrorist recruitment, or even reward Mr. Hasan. CNN subsequently reported that President Donald Trump had not known Mr. Hasan is paralyzed from the waist down and uses a wheelchair, a detail that CNN said made a public broadcast “less palatable” to him. On October 15, President Trump announced that the execution “will not be streamed,” reversing Sec. Hegseth’s announcement. The same day, a new ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll found that 80% of Americans oppose a live-streamed public execution, despite 52% supporting the execution itself.

The U.S. Army set an execution date of December 3, 2026, for Mr. Hasan, a former military psychiatrist, who was convicted of killing 13 people in a mass shooting on the Fort Hood military base in 2009. The execution followed President Trump’s recent approval of his death sentence. The execution is set to take place at Fort Hood in Texas. However, Mr. Hasan remains constitutionally entitled to pursue appellate review of his death sentence in civilian federal courts, which would indefinitely delay his execution.