Military shooting: Trump cancels live broadcast of execution
The planned public broadcast of the execution of the Fort Hood shooter will not take place.
Quick Look
- US President Donald Trump has canceled the planned live broadcast of the execution of convicted assassin Nidal Malik Hasan.
- The December 3 execution by firing squad at Fort Hood is now scheduled to take place without public broadcast.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
Nidal Hasan killed 13 people in an attack on the Fort Hood military base in 2009. He was sentenced to death in 2013.
US President Donald Trump has canceled the planned live broadcast of the execution of convicted assassin Nidal Malik Hasan.
The planned shooting of a condemned assassin at a military base in the US state of Texas will not be broadcast via live stream after all. Many “very good and well-meaning people” did not want to watch the man die, US President Donald Trump explained the U-turn on his Truth Social platform.
In his opinion, a public broadcast could have had a strong deterrent effect. The execution of Nidal Hasan, who committed a massacre at a military base in 2009, will now not be shown on the Internet. The closest relatives of the victims could be there in person if they wished, Trump said.
Hasan is scheduled to be executed by firing squad on December 3 at the Fort Hood military base in the US state of Texas. The former military psychiatrist killed 13 people and injured 32 others in an attack there in 2009. He was sentenced to death in 2013.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth first announced last week that the execution would take place in public and then later confirmed that there would be a livestream. They will ensure that people can publicly observe Hasan's execution, he told the right-wing conservative US broadcaster Real America's Voice. “People need to understand that such acts have serious consequences.”
The project met with sharp criticism across party lines. US Vice President JD Vance had expressed doubts about the plans and said he would not look at a possible transfer. Critics warned, among other things, that the recordings could serve as propaganda material for terrorists. At the same time, the plans raised questions about how one could have prevented children, for example, from watching the execution.
If the execution is actually carried out, it would be the first military execution in the United States in 65 years, according to the Death Penalty Information Center - and the first execution by a U.S. military firing squad since World War II.
Trump only recently approved Hasan's execution - a few days after an execution attempt failed in the US state of Tennessee. According to authorities, Christa Pike, who was convicted of murder, was given two doses of the drug pentobarbital, but she continued to live. The case has reignited the debate about the death penalty in the United States.
What to Watch
AI outlook — possibilities, not facts
Execution of Nidal Hasan on December 3rd
Likely · Within weeks
Open Questions
- Will the execution take place on December 3rd as planned?
