Donald Trump has seemed to pump the brakes on Pete Hegseth‘s shocking announcement that the Fort Hood killer’s execution will be broadcast live for Americans to watch, telling reporters the decision is up to him.
The Defense Secretary said on Thursday that Nidal Hasan, who was sentenced to death after killing 13 people at Fort Hood in Texas in 2009, would be slain in a live broadcast.
The decision sparked widespread outrage, with many slamming the Trump administration for a dystopian and inhumane handling of the execution.
However, the president told reporters at the White House on Saturday that he has not made a final decision on whether the execution would be livestreamed.
‘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. I know what the military would like to do, but I’ll make a decision,’ Trump said.
He went on to call Hasan a ‘vicious killer,’ citing that the former Army Major murdered 13 people ‘in cold blood’ and wounded 20 others.
‘Some of those people will never have their lives back in a true sense,’ the president added.
Trump’s backpedaling on the public execution comes after he endorsed Hegseth’s idea on Wednesday, claiming that Hasan ‘deserves it.’
Donald Trump told reporters on Saturday at the White House that he will ultimately make the decision as to whether the execution will be livestreamed
Former US Major Nidal Hasan was sentenced to death after killing 13 people in 2009 at Fort Hood in Texas
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth previously announced that Hasan’s execution would be livestreamed
Then on Friday, Trump said the Pentagon was ‘making a determination’ about the public execution, adding that either way, Hasan would be put to death by a firing squad.
‘I really don’t care how he goes, as long as he goes. And I think the death penalty is a very worthy way of going for him,’ he added.
A reporter asked the president that same day whether he authorized the livestream, and he responded that he ‘absolutely’ did.
Vice President JD Vance also expressed doubt that the livestream would come to fruition. When asked about it on Friday, he told reporters: ‘I don’t know that that’s actually going to happen.’
Vance said that if it does happen, he would not be tuning in. ‘So whatever the controversy is about the method of the execution, I hope that people don’t forget that this is a guy who brutally murdered a lot of innocent people,’ the vice president added.
Hegseth unveiled the idea during an interview on Jack Posobiec’s podcast, arguing that it would be public ‘because people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things.’
The Defense Secretary added that the execution by firing squad was a return to tactics used by the US Army in World War II.
He said he liked ‘the mentality we had in World War II, which was win. Which was understand when the enemy attacks you, you stand your ground.’
The announcement sparked backlash and condemnation. The UN human rights office said on Friday that broadcasting the killing ‘is tantamount to a public execution and would breach the absolute prohibition of torture.’
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy went further, asking: ‘What is he mimicking? ISIS executions.’
‘I understand that in this country we have the death penalty, but public executions is medieval,’ he said, calling it ‘one of the things that we abhor about terrorist groups.’
The backlash crossed party lines, with Republican Senator Thom Tillis declaring that public executions are ‘what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do.’
‘It should not be happening in America,’ the North Carolina senator wrote on X, adding that streaming the death was ‘beyond disgusting.’
Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff told MS Now that the Defense Secretary is ‘a deeply unwell person who seems to relish this kind of brutality.’
He accused Hegseth of staging an ‘obscene medieval spectacle’ while ‘running a department that is falling into chaos.’
‘The guy cannot run the military competently,’ Ossoff added.
Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, murdered 13 people when he opened fire inside a medical building at Fort Hood, Texas, in November 2009
The head of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops also slammed the decision, with Archbishop Paul S Coakley calling it a ‘barbaric promotion of a culture of death and must be reconsidered.’
Hasan was convicted in 2013 of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder for the killings.
He told officers that he was targeting soldiers deploying to Afghanistan because they were ‘going to engage in an illegal war.’
Hasan descended on a medical processing center at Fort Hood and followed soldiers out the back door before exchanging gunfire with police. His execution is scheduled for December 3 at 1pm.
