Trump scraps plan to livestream execution after international backlash

Nidal Hasan, the Army psychiatrist convicted of the Fort Hood shootings and sentenced to death. Photo / Getty Images

The firing squad execution of a convicted military base shooter will not be livestreamed, US President Donald Trump has announced, cancelling a contentious plan by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.

The move to livestream Nidal Hasan’s execution was widely opposed at home and abroad, prompting outrage from both US Democratic and Republican politicians, the Catholic Church and the United Nations.

The cancellation is a blow to Hegseth, who is already under fire over the stalemated Iran war and its fallout, which are weighing on Trump’s Republican Party ahead of November midterm elections.

Hasan “will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed”, Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.

The US President indicated he did not personally oppose the streaming plan, saying it “might have been a strong deterrent for the world to witness how America deals with terrorists and scum like Hasan”.