President Trump approved death by U.S. Army firing squad for Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan and ruled out a public livestream, while allowing victims' families to attend.

Nearly 17 years after the 2009 massacre, the former Army major convicted of killing 13 people and wounding 32 is moving toward the first U.S. military execution since 1961. Fox News reported that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth recommended the firing squad and that President Trump approved it, with the execution set for 1 p.m. CT on Dec. 3 at Fort Hood, Texas.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell stated the decision in plain terms.

"Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has recommended, and President Donald J. Trump has approved, death by U.S. Army firing squad for convicted terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan, the jihadist who opened fire on unarmed American soldiers at Fort Hood in 2009."

Parnell added that “Judgment day for Hasan has finally come.” Hasan carried out the attack while shouting “Allahu Akbar.” The dead included a pregnant soldier and her unborn child.

Hegseth has pushed a wider reset at the Pentagon, from new autonomous systems command structures to tighter warfighting standards across the force. The Hasan decision fits that pattern of follow-through on military discipline and consequences.

Trump calls Hasan a traitor and backs the sentence

President Trump described the killer without soft language on Truth Social, as relayed by Just The News.

"Nidal Malik Hasan, a former U.S. Army Major turned traitor, is a very bad and evil man, who killed 13 people, including a pregnant soldier, who died, along with her unborn son, and injured, very seriously, 32 more innocent people."

Hegseth has said he is fully committed to seeing the sentence carried out. The Daily Wire reported his position directly.

"I am 100% committed to ensuring the death penalty is carried out for Nidal Hasan."

No U.S. military execution has occurred since 1961. The Secretary of the Army is responsible for final arrangements on time and place under the approval already given.

That accountability focus runs alongside other Hegseth moves, including work to map next-generation U.S. warfare with outside technologists and strategists. The point is the same: the military exists to win and to police its own ranks when one of its own turns murderer.

Livestream plans shifted after the announcement

Hegseth’s team first indicated the execution would be public so Americans would see the cost of jihadist violence against U.S. troops. RealClearPolitics carried Trump’s on-camera reply when asked whether he had approved a livestream: “Did I approve? Absolutely I did.” He answered “Yeah” when pressed again on streaming.

Later clarification went the other way. Trump confirmed the military will not livestream Hasan’s execution. Immediate family members of the victims may view it in person if they choose. Trump tied that narrow exception to the people who paid the highest price.

"That said, the execution may be viewed in person by the immediate families of the victims, if they so choose. They deserve to witness JUSTICE!"

The split in public reports leaves the process question settled on one point: there will be no mass online audience. Families keep the option to be present. Everyone else does not get a spectacle feed.

Readers tracking Hegseth’s tenure have seen the same insistence on institutional focus elsewhere, including when he took the chair of a new Homeland Defense Board after earlier advisory housecleaning. Personnel and process get aligned to mission, not the other way around.

Seventeen years is long enough

Hasan was an Army psychiatrist who opened fire on unarmed soldiers at a deployment processing site. Thirteen died. Thirty-two more were wounded. He was convicted and sentenced to death. Appeals and bureaucracy stretched the case across multiple administrations.

The Daily Mail coverage of the no-livestream decision sits on top of that long record: a clear presidential approval for the firing squad, a hard date reported for Fort Hood, and a final public line that the death will not be turned into online theater.

Hegseth has also stood up efforts to put faith and cohesion back in view for the force, including a Pentagon Office of Religious Affairs, while separate steps have aimed to lock academies on warfighting rather than civilian tenure tracks. The Hasan case is simpler than org charts. A soldier murdered his own. The sentence was death. The president signed off on carrying it out by firing squad.

Victims’ families waited through years of delay. Taxpayers funded the endless legal afterlife of a man who announced his motive in Arabic while pulling the trigger. The approval now on the record closes the core question of whether the United States still means what its courts-martial impose.

Justice delayed for a terrorist who killed American soldiers is still justice owed. The firing squad should end the wait.