US President Donald Trump canceled on Thursday the planned livestream of the December 3 execution of Nidal Hasan, the former US Army major who murdered 13 unarmed soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009, according to The Times of Israel. Trump said he overruled Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who had wanted the firing squad execution broadcast as a public spectacle.
Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist convicted of premeditated murder in a military trial, fatally shot 13 soldiers and wounded 32 others inside a medical facility at the sprawling Texas base. Law enforcement officers shot him during the rampage, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down, and he has used a wheelchair ever since.
What Trump Decided and Why
The president announced the reversal in a social media post, writing that while a broadcast might have served as a deterrent showing how America deals with terrorists, many people preferred not to watch the death unfold.
Hasan will still die by firing squad at Fort Hood on December 3, the very base he attacked, but the event will not be streamed. The families of his victims retain the right to witness the execution in person, as is standard practice at American executions.
A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Trump and his advisers had been unaware of the livestream plan before Hegseth announced it in a media interview earlier this month. No other country is known to televise or livestream judicial executions.
Hegseth's Gamble and the Backlash
Hegseth had defended the broadcast as necessary so that people understand there are serious consequences for such crimes. The announcement surprised many, including figures inside the president's own party. Vice President JD Vance, religious leaders, and international observers all voiced doubts. Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who oversees spiritual care for Catholic members of the US armed forces, raised objections, and Pope Leo condemned capital punishment in all its forms. Recent polls showed a majority of Americans opposed the livestream.
Senator John Curtis, a Republican from Utah, called the cancelation the right move. Democratic Representative Richard Neal of Massachusetts went further, calling the original plan a profound failure of moral judgment and basic human decency that should never have been considered.
The episode landed amid renewed scrutiny of capital punishment in the United States. Last month, Tennessee botched the execution of Christa Pike, convicted of a 1990s murder, when she survived two lethal injections and was left badly injured and hospitalized.
Why This Story Resonates in Israel
For Israelis, the Fort Hood case carries a familiar weight. Hasan's 2009 rampage was an act of jihadist terror carried out on a military base, against soldiers in uniform, by a man who had warned of his sympathies before he opened fire. It is the same enemy Israel has faced from Gaza's terror rulers to