Under public pressure, Trump cancels live broadcast of the execution of a criminal sentenced to death
On October 15, Donald Trump announced that the execution of Nidal Hasan, sentenced for the 2009 shooting at the American military base Fort Hood, would not be broadcast live. Thus, the US president canceled the Pentagon's decision, announced a week earlier, CNN reports .
Hasan's execution, as planned, is scheduled for December 3. Only the immediate relatives of the deceased will be able to witness the execution.
Trump explained that a public broadcast could demonstrate to the whole world how the US deals with terrorists and serve as a warning to them. However, according to the American president, many people would not want to see Hasan's death, neither live nor in any other format.
Last week, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth announced the intention to show the execution to all who wished. According to CNN sources, Trump allegedly did not know about this statement in advance and initially did not have a clear position on the broadcast. However, he reportedly strongly supports the decision to execute Hasan by firing squad.
Politicians from both leading US parties and religious leaders demanded the cancellation of the broadcast. The day before, 72 former high-ranking representatives of the American armed forces, including 45 generals and 12 admirals, issued an open letter. They did not object to the execution itself but called the public broadcast "a barbaric abuse of power."
In their opinion, showing the execution would violate the constitutional prohibition of cruel punishments and could turn Hasan into a martyr in the eyes of US adversaries.
On November 5, 2009, military psychiatrist Major Nidal Hasan opened fire at the Fort Hood base in Texas. He killed 13 people and wounded over 30. This was the deadliest attack on an American military base outside a combat zone. During the trial, Hasan stated that he was defending Muslims and the Taliban in Afghanistan from American military personnel. The attacker himself was wounded and has been using a wheelchair ever since.
In 2013, a military court sentenced Hasan to death. In early October 2026, Trump approved the execution of the sentence by firing squad.
If the sentence is carried out, it will be the first execution in the American military system in over 60 years. The last time such a punishment was carried out was in 1961, when Private John Bennett, convicted of raping an 11-year-old girl, was hanged.
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