Trump Says He’ll “Make a Decision” on Livestreaming Fort Hood Shooter’s Firing Squad Execution

President Donald Trump says the final call on whether the public will be able to watch the execution of Fort Hood mass shooter Nidal Hasan rests with him. Speaking to reporters at the White House on Saturday, Trump said he had not yet decided whether the Army firing squad execution would be livestreamed, but made clear he sees arguments on both sides.

“There are two thoughts: don’t show it and show it,” Trump said, adding that by showing it, “maybe other people won’t be doing what he did.”

“I’ll make a decision, ultimately,” the president said. “I know what the military would like to do, but we’ll make a decision.”

But what the Pentagon had already confirmed about the execution raised an even bigger question…

The Pentagon has confirmed to Fox News Digital that the execution is scheduled for December 3 and is planned to be livestreamed. Trump described Hasan bluntly: “He was vicious, he was violent.” If it goes forward, the execution would be the U.S. military’s first since 1961 and its first by firing squad since 1945.

Nidal Malik Hasan, a former Army major and psychiatrist, opened fire at Fort Hood, Texas, on November 5, 2009, killing 13 people and wounding more than 30 others. It remains one of the deadliest attacks ever carried out on a U.S. military installation.

A military court convicted Hasan in 2013 and sentenced him to death. At trial, he acknowledged he was the shooter and claimed he acted to protect Islamic insurgents from the U.S. military. For more than a decade afterward, his case sat on military death row as appeals dragged on.

Fox News Digital previously reported that Trump approved an Army firing squad on the recommendation of War Secretary Pete Hegseth. Hegseth has argued that the execution should be public because “people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things.”

Before Saturday’s remarks, Trump told a Syracuse television station that he “wasn’t involved in that decision, but I understand the decision,” adding that the military wanted the execution to “serve as an example, and I understand that very well.”

The livestream plan has drawn pushback from some unexpected quarters. Vice President JD Vance said Friday he was not sure whether the execution would be broadcast.

“If it’s ultimately livestreamed, I’m not going to be watching it,” Vance told reporters.

Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who leads the Catholic Archdiocese for the Military Services, went further on Monday, saying he wanted to “express my disapproval of what is proposed regarding the execution of the terrorist Hasan.”