President Donald Trump said Saturday that he will make the final call on whether the military livestreams the December firing-squad execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, reopening a question the Pentagon appeared to settle two days earlier.
“Well, you have two thoughts. 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. He was vicious. He was violent. 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 we’ll make a decision.” Trump told reporters outside the White House on October 10.
Trump said he understood the argument that broadcasting the execution could deter similar attacks, but he stopped short of approving the stream. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth had said the public would be able to watch, and a Pentagon official confirmed Thursday that the department planned to livestream the execution.
The new statement gives the story a fresh turn after covered earlier this week by The Dallas Express, which reported Trump’s approval of a firing squad and detailed the Pentagon’s livestream plan Friday. The Army’s execution schedule remains unchanged.
Dallas Pastor Supports Livestream
First Baptist Dallas Senior Pastor Robert Jeffress backed the Pentagon plan.
Jeffress posted on X that he views capital punishment as a biblical affirmation of the value of human life.
“Capital punishment is commanded by God in Genesis 9:6 to remind people of the sanctity of human life. The more people that can see that truth illustrated through a public execution, the better,” Jeffress said, per Religion News Service.
I support the Pentagon’s decision to livestream the execution of mass-murderer Nidal Hassan.
Capital punishment is commanded by God in Genesis 9:6 to remind people of the sanctity of human life. The more people that can see that truth illustrated through a public execution,…
— Dr. Robert Jeffress (@robertjeffress) October 9, 2026
Other Christian leaders sharply disagree. Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, condemned the livestream plan Friday and said it “is a barbaric promotion of a culture of death and must be reconsidered.”
Fort Hood survivor Alonzo Lunsford, whom Hasan shot seven times in 2009, supports carrying out the death sentence and plans to attend the execution, but he opposes turning it into entertainment. “It’s not a spectacle,” Lunsford told Fox News Digital.
Vice President JD Vance also expressed doubt Friday that the livestream would occur and said he would not watch it, per a CSPAN video interview. Hegseth has argued that public access would show the serious consequences of attacks such as Hasan’s.
.@VP JD Vance on livestreamed execution: "If it's ultimately livestreamed, I'm not gonna be watching it." pic.twitter.com/DKQ7X2MiWw
— CSPAN (@cspan) October 9, 2026
Execution Date Remains Set
Acting Secretary of the Army Adam Telle directed the Army on October 6 to execute Hasan by firing squad at 1 p.m. CST on December 3 at Fort Hood, the Army announced the next day. Trump approved the death sentence on October 2 after Hasan completed the military appellate process.
A military panel convicted Hasan in 2013 of 13 specifications of premeditated murder and 32 specifications of attempted premeditated murder for the November 5, 2009, attack at Fort Hood. The U.S. Supreme Court denied his petition for review on March 31, 2025.
If the Army carries out the sentence, the military will conduct its first execution since 1961. The execution itself no longer appears in dispute inside the administration. The open question now centers on whether the government will make Hasan’s death a public broadcast.
Trump said Saturday that he will make that decision.
