Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has enjoyed President Trump’s full support for any number of Trumpian initiatives: staging macho, campy shows of military bravado; trashing political opponents and the press, often by name; dissing European allies; posting videos of air strikes on suspected drug boats off the coast of Latin America. But Hegseth apparently crossed a line with his revelation last week that the execution by firing squad of a military death-row inmate would be livestreamed to the world. Even a president who’d brought a bloody mixed-martial-arts fight to the White House lawn apparently didn’t relish the thought of an afternoon spent watching Army soldiers shoot bullets into a paraplegic.
From the start, Hegseth’s plan for the death of Nidal Hasan, the former Army psychiatrist who shot and killed 13 people in a 2009 rampage at Fort Hood, in Texas, was haphazard. Trump approved the death sentence on October 2. Then the Army announced on October 6 that Hasan, who has been on death row since 2013, would be killed in December by firing squad rather than by lethal injection, the method used in many civilian executions. Two days later, Hegseth told the podcaster Jack Posobiec (known for his promotion of the Pizzagate pedophile conspiracy theory) that Hasan’s execution would be public. Hegseth confirmed later that day on X that the execution would not be “public” in the typical style of a state-governed execution—conducted in the presence of officials, victims’ relatives, and maybe a few journalists—but rather broadcast via livestream.
Trump was immediately inundated with feedback from friends and confidants, including a number of lawmakers who told the president that Hegseth’s plan was a terrible idea, one close Trump adviser told us. On October 9, Trump appeared to signal his approval for Hegseth’s idea. But in remarks in subsequent days, Trump equivocated. “I know what the military would like to do, but we’ll make a decision,” he said.
Within the administration, there was immediate and “pretty universal revulsion” about the livestream plan, one administration official told us. By late last week, even the president’s inner circle was making its distaste clear. Vice President Vance barely hid his disgust. “If it’s ultimately livestreamed, I’m not gonna be watching it,” he told reporters. One administration official told us that Vance’s response reflected his general frustration with Hegseth, who, like Vance, is said to harbor 2028 presidential ambitions. Then House Speaker Mike Johnson followed suit: He, too, would sit out the Hasan-execution show. Other lawmakers kept calling the president and his aides to say that a livestream not only was barbaric but could also undermine Republican efforts to hold on to Congress in the midterm elections. Between those private calls and criticism on TV over the weekend that Trump watched, the president “soured on it pretty quickly,” one adviser told us.
Hegseth’s livestream plan was a surprise to virtually everyone at the Pentagon; even those in Hegseth’s closest circle of advisers were blindsided, people familiar with the matter told us. Few in the military objected to the idea of Hasan’s execution, given that he’d committed the despicable act of service-member fratricide. Still, the optics of shooting a person who is paralyzed from the waist down—Hasan was shot while being apprehended by authorities on the day of his rampage—made even battle-hardened warriors uneasy. “One of the more immediate reactions was: Does Hegseth realize this guy is in a wheelchair?” one official told us.
Across the military and intelligence communities, officials also worried that a public execution of a Muslim would become a recruiting tool for groups such as the Islamic State. Hasan was apparently motivated to kill by his objection to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “A lot of people think it’ll be turned into propaganda for an organization that’s been dying a slow death for the last decade,” the official said of ISIS, which has repeatedly used videotaped executions of hostages as a recruitment tool. Representative Austin Scott, a Georgia Republican and a member of the House Armed Services Committee, wrote on X that although he supported Hasan’s death sentence, “live-streaming executions is what jihadists do. America is better than that.” Senator Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, called Hegseth’s plan “beyond disgusting.”
Today, Trump said on Truth Social that livestreaming the execution “might have been a strong deterrent for the World to witness how America deals with Terrorists,” but “many very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die.” The White House had no further comment.
The whole affair may provide new grist for the growing number of Republicans who are unhappy with Hegseth’s performance, especially as the Iran war has become bogged down. Trump has remained a resolute supporter of the Pentagon chief, officials have told us. But plenty in Trump’s own party would now not be unhappy to see the president’s attitude change. Hegseth, for his part, quickly walked away from his own proposed reality-TV spectacle. Trump and Hegseth spoke about today’s reversal ahead of the president’s social-media announcement, according to Sean Parnell, the chief Pentagon spokesperson. “They are completely aligned,” Parnell told us in a statement.
[Read: The Top Gun: Maverick theory of Pete Hegseth]
Hasan will still be executed, as planned, by firing squad at Fort Hood on December 3 at 1 p.m. central standard time, but only a select audience will witness the event.
The Pentagon hopes that his killing will be more efficient than the last time a service member faced an official firing squad. On January 31, 1945, near Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, France, the Army executed Private Eddie Slovik, 24 years old, over his desertion during World War II. Slovik had admitted to the crime, and a court martial convicted him in November 1944. His appeal for clemency was denied by General Dwight D. Eisenhower. The execution was intended, in part, to deter other troops from leaving their post amid heavy battlefield casualties in the final year of the war. Slovik was strapped to a wooden post, stripped of his military insignia, and blindfolded. The firing squad struck him 11 times. But the bullets missed his heart, leaving Slovik to bleed to death.
Nancy A. Youssef contributed reporting.
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