WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump Thursday announced that the execution of a man convicted of the Fort Hood shooting will not be livestreamed, a reversal after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last week that Nidal Hasan’s death by firing squad would be public. 

“I think streaming the execution for all to see might have been a strong deterrent for the World to witness how America deals with Terrorists and SCUM like Hasan but, many very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die, through streaming, or through any other visual device,” Trump wrote on his social media site, Truth Social. “He will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed.”

Last week, Hegseth’s decision to make Hasan’s execution public garnered bipartisan backlash, and members of Congress urged the Trump administration to reconsider. 

On Friday, Trump “absolutely” said he had approved the livestreaming but also said he would make a determination about whether it should occur.

Vice President JD Vance appeared skeptical that a public execution would be approved, and already stated he would not watch it. 

Earlier this month, Trump approved of Hasan’s execution by firing squad on Dec. 3 at Fort Hood, Texas, the military installation where Hasan carried out a mass shooting on Nov. 5, 2009. 

He was an Army Medical Corps psychiatrist from Virginia who was convicted and admitted to killing 13 people and injuring 32 others at Fort Hood, making it the deadliest non-combative attack on a U.S. military base. 

Hasan was also shot during the mass shooting and is paralyzed from the waist down. 

Trump added in his announcement that the only people who will be viewing the execution in person are “the immediate families of the victims, if they so choose.” 

President Donald Trump on Friday appeared to leave open the possibility that the federal government won’t livestream a military execution planned for December that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had said would be public.

But Trump also told reporters at the White House that he had “absolutely” approved livestreaming the execution.

The apparently contradictory comments came as the Trump administration faced a wave of criticism over plans to livestream the execution of Nidal Hasan, a former Army major convicted of killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009. Hegseth announced Thursday that Hasan’s death by firing squad would be public.

“I’m going to make a determination about that, but he will be killed,” Trump first told reporters when asked about the livestream.

A short time later, Trump was asked whether he had approved livestreaming the execution. He replied, “Did I approve? Absolutely.”

Plans for the public execution came under bipartisan condemnation from lawmakers, along with numerous religious figures, Thursday and Friday. 

Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, wrote on social media that public executions are “what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do.” He called the plans “beyond disgusting.”

Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat, on social media urged the Pentagon to reverse course.

“We are long past the days of public hangings in the town square,” Murray wrote. “Kids watch what our leaders do and say, is this kind of bloodshed really what we want them seeing?

Even Vice President JD Vance cast doubt on whether the execution would be broadcast. He told reporters that if it’s ultimately livestreamed, “I’m not gonna be watching it.”