President Trump announced Saturday he will personally decide whether to livestream the firing squad execution of convicted Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan.
Trump addressed reporters on the White House South Lawn, speaking bluntly about the severity of Hasan’s crimes and the punishment he deserves.
“He’s a vicious killer, killed 13 people in cold blood, wounded over 20. Some of those people will never have their lives back in a true sense,” Trump said.
Trump added, “So, I really don’t care how he goes, as long as he goes, and I think that the death penalty is a very worthy way of going for him.”
A White House spokesperson confirmed that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recommended Hasan’s execution be carried out by firing squad on December 3, and Trump approved that recommendation.
Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, opened fire at the Fort Hood processing center in November 2009, killing 12 soldiers and one civilian and injuring 32 others.
The attack remains the deadliest mass shooting ever recorded on a U.S. military installation, and Hasan has never expressed remorse for the carnage he caused.
During his 2013 trial, Hasan acted as his own attorney and stated openly that the “evidence will clearly show that I am the shooter.”
He claimed he carried out the attack in response to U.S. military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, framing the mass murder as a politically motivated act.
If the execution proceeds in December as planned, it would mark the U.S. military’s first execution in six decades, raising significant legal and ethical questions.
Vice President J.D. Vance told reporters Friday he would not watch the execution even if it were livestreamed, adding “I don’t know that that’s actually going to happen.”
The proposal to broadcast the execution publicly drew immediate and sharp criticism from both Republicans and Democrats across the political spectrum.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) wrote on X that while Hasan deserves the death penalty, “making his execution public and streaming it? Beyond disgusting.”
Tillis went further, writing that “public executions are what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do. It should not be happening in America.”
Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Jack Reed (D-R.I.) called Hegseth’s plan “a gift to anti-American terrorist recruiters” and said it is “absolutely shameful and damaging to America’s interests and core values.”
