PICKING UP PETE’S MESS

Frantic White House Scramble to Undo Pentagon Pete Disaster Revealed

A mix of “universal revulsion” within the White House and incessant calls from panicked lawmakers forced the president to act.

There was widespread disgust in the White House after Pete Hegseth blindsided top officials with an announcement he would livestream a military execution, a new report alleges.

A frantic attempt to overturn the plan followed, as President Donald Trump was immediately inundated with feedback from friends and confidants who told him Hegseth’s ghoulish desire was a “terrible idea,” a source close to Trump tells The Atlantic.

An administration official tells the magazine there was “pretty universal revulsion” in the White House about livestreaming the execution of Nidal Hasan, the Army psychiatrist turned terrorist who shot and killed 13 people in a 2009 massacre at Fort Hood.

BRIDGE TOO FAR

Trump Throws Hegseth to Wolves in Execution Retreat

Farrah Tomazin

This feedback, along with negative TV coverage, led the president, who publicly supported the plan immediately after Hegseth announced it in an interview with a right-wing commentator, to sour on the idea “pretty quickly,” a Trump adviser told The Atlantic.

Vice President JD Vance and Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson were among those who did not hide their disapproval when asked about the plan to execute Hasan by firing squad as the world watched.

“If it’s ultimately livestreamed, I’m not gonna be watching it,” Vance told reporters last week.

The Atlantic reports multiple Republican lawmakers—in addition to those publicly speaking out against the livestream—called Trump and his aides, urging him to call it off. They reportedly told the president that the plan could further harm Republicans in the midterms, which is already expected to be a bloodbath for the GOP.

Others noted that the optics would be made all the worse by the fact that Hasan, 56, is paralyzed from the waist down—an injury he sustained from a shot fired at him as he fled authorities in 2009.

An official told The Atlantic, “One of the more immediate reactions was: Does Hegseth realize this guy is in a wheelchair?”

There were also reportedly fears in the administration that footage of the public execution of a Muslim could be used in recruiting videos for terrorist groups like ISIS.

In announcing that there would be no livestream on Friday, Trump said on Truth Social that there were positives to a public execution, like allowing the world to “witness how America deals with Terrorists,” but “many very good and well-meaning people would rather not watch him die.”

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Reached for comment, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly referred the Daily Beast to Trump’s statement and added, “The White House and Department of War are fully aligned on ensuring justice is brought to this heinous monster who killed 13 innocent people, including a pregnant soldier, and seriously injured 32 more.”

The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesman told The Atlantic that Hegseth and Trump spoke prior to Trump’s announcement on Friday and that the men are “completely aligned.”

Hasan will be executed by firing squad at Fort Hood on December 3. The White House tells the Beast that his execution “may be viewed in person by the immediate families of the victims if they so choose.”

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Josh FialloBreaking News Reporter

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