Americans interviewed by Fox News Digital were overwhelmingly pleased with President Donald Trump’s decision to call off livestreaming the Fort Hood shooter’s planned firing squad execution after the Pentagon had announced it would be livestreamed for public viewing.
“I’m really glad that he called it off, because I feel like it’s not really a deterrent, it’s more like a shock effect,” Sylvia from Arizona told Fox News Digital. “I don’t think we really need that in this country right now.”
“The only other countries that really do that are like North Korea,” David from Arizona said. “We don’t want to be North Korea.”
“I never approved of the idea of it being public in the first place,” Nate from Virginia said. “I think it’s just ridiculous to make a spectacle out of an execution, especially in 2026 of all time.”
War Secretary Pete Hegseth announced earlier this month that Nidal Hasan’s execution, set for Dec. 3, would be publicly available via livestream.
Trump took to Truth Social on Thursday to announce that while livestreaming the execution could serve as a deterrent to terrorism, the execution would not be available for public viewing as he acknowledged that many Americans would rather not witness Hasan’s death.
“He will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
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Despite the execution not being publicly available, Trump confirmed that the family members of the victims who died in the 2009 shooting “deserve to witness JUSTICE” and will be permitted to attend in person.
“Well, maybe he has a conscience now,” one person said about Trump’s reversal of the Pentagon’s decision to livestream the execution.
Some Americans who spoke with Fox News Digital argued that Trump’s decision to call off the livestreaming was to save face after criticism of the proposal was circulating, with many arguing that livestreaming the execution would turn it into a spectacle and could easily be exposed to children.
“I think it was trying to save his image,” Ivy from Georgia said.
“He doesn’t wanna look like a bad person, but at the end of the day, we all know who he really is — a piece of s—,” Ivy said.
“I think it was just so clearly an unpopular thing to do that he realized it would probably do more harm to his public image than good,” Nate said.
Hasan, an Army psychiatrist at the time of the shooting, killed 13 and injured 32 people when he shouted “Allahu Akbar” and opened fire at a military base in Texas. The mass killer is now 56 years old and uses a wheelchair after he was left partially paralyzed from being shot by police officers during his arrest almost 17 years ago.
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Only one person who spoke with Fox News Digital argued that livestreaming the execution would have been a good idea, even adding that he would have watched the livestream himself.
“Yeah, I would watch,” Daniel from Virginia said. “Because I wouldn’t want somebody to kill another person, you know what I mean? That person should be held wrong for what he’s done.”
Hasan was sentenced to death during his 2013 military trial after being found guilty on all 42 counts. His execution is set to be the first U.S. military execution in over six decades.
