Trump Revels in Pentagon Pete’s Barbaric Scheme
The president apparently has a new idea for must-see TV.
President Donald Trump has never been one to shy away from a spectacle—even one that ends with a firing squad.
On Friday, the 80-year-old president appeared to give an enthusiastic thumbs-up to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s controversial plan to livestream a military execution, even as his own vice president and fellow Republicans recoiled at the prospect.
“Did I approve? Absolutely,” Trump said of Hegseth's planned execution livestream.
Photo Illustration by Victoria Sunday/The Daily Beast/Getty Images/Reuters
“Did I approve? Absolutely,” Trump told reporters outside the White House when asked whether he had personally signed off on broadcasting the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, the former Army psychiatrist convicted of killing 13 people and wounding 32 others in a 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas.
“I really don’t care how he goes as long as he goes,” Trump said. “And I think that the death penalty is a very worthy way of going for him.”
However, the president had earlier suggested that a final decision on broadcasting the execution had not been made, leaving it unclear whether his approval extended specifically to the livestream.
The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment.
Vance made it clear that if the livestreamed execution went ahead as planned, he was "not going to be watching it."
Pool/Getty Images
Trump’s remarks came as Vice President JD Vance appeared to express reservations about the Pentagon’s plan to turn the execution into a spectator sport.
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“I don’t know that that’s actually going to happen,” Vance told reporters Friday, adding that if the execution is livestreamed, “I’m not going to be watching it.”
Hegseth announced Thursday that Hasan, 56, would face a military firing squad on Dec. 3, with the execution made available for public viewing.
“We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it,” Hegseth told the conservative network Real America’s Voice, arguing that the public needed to understand the consequences of such crimes.
The proposal has drawn condemnation from both sides of the political aisle, with even some Republicans who support Hasan’s execution objecting to broadcasting his death.
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis called the proposal “beyond disgusting,” comparing public executions to practices in Iran and Afghanistan.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ president, Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, also condemned the proposed broadcast as “a barbaric promotion of a culture of death.”
If carried out, Hasan’s execution would be the first by the U.S. military since 1961. Broadcasting it live would mark an unprecedented departure from modern American execution practices.
Pete Hegseth delivers his 2026 "State of the Force" address to US junior officers and enlisted leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Quantico, Virginia.
REUTERS/Evan Vucci/Pool
The Pentagon’s plan has also raised questions about whether major social media platforms would permit the government to stream the killing, given their restrictions on graphic violence.
Despite the backlash, Trump made clear Friday that he had no reservations about Hasan being put to death.
“He will be killed,” the president said. “He will be through firing squad.”
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