Trump Approves Firing Squad for Fort Hood Terrorist
After 17 long years, justice is finally coming for the families of the 13 Americans murdered at Fort Hood. President Donald Trump has approved the military’s first firing-squad execution in over 80 years for the terrorist behind the 2009 massacre — and the Pentagon announced this week the execution will be livestreamed so the public can watch.
Trump Signs Off on Historic Execution
The Pentagon announced on October 5 that President Trump approved death by military firing squad for former Army Major Nidal Hasan, following the recommendation of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell declared in a post announcing the decision, “Judgement day for Hasan has finally come.”
The move marks the first time the U.S. military has carried out an execution of any kind since 1961 — a span of 65 years — and the first firing squad since World War II. The Trump administration recently expanded the list of permissible federal execution methods to include firing squad, electrocution, and gas, citing growing difficulties with lethal injection drugs.
Justice at the Very Base He Attacked
Acting Army Secretary Adam Telle announced the execution is scheduled for December 3 at 1 p.m. local time at Fort Hood, Texas — the very base where Hasan carried out his massacre. The time is no coincidence: it matches the hour when Hasan opened fire on unarmed soldiers back in 2009.
“Soldiers with rifles” will carry out the firing squad, Hegseth said, calling the outcome simple: “Justice.” Hasan has sat on military death row since his 2013 court-martial, one of only four inmates on the military’s death row.
The Pentagon Will Livestream It
In a move that underscores the administration’s no-nonsense stance, Hegseth announced this week that the execution will be livestreamed for the public. “We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public, because people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things,” Hegseth said in an interview this week.
A Pentagon official confirmed the execution “will be livestreamed,” and Hegseth confirmed it again in a post on X. The administration’s message is unmistakable: attacks on American service members carry the ultimate consequence, and the whole country will see it.
A 17-Year Wait Finally Ends
Hasan, an Army psychiatrist who had become radicalized, walked into the medical processing center at Fort Hood on November 5, 2009, and opened fire on unarmed soldiers preparing to deploy to Afghanistan and Iraq. He killed 13 people — 12 service members and one civilian — and wounded 32 others, shouting “Allahu Akbar” as he fired. He was shot by responding police and left paralyzed.
In July 2013, a panel of 13 officers convicted him of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder, unanimously recommending the death sentence. Hasan admitted in court that he was the gunman and said he was targeting soldiers bound for what he called “an illegal war.”
For 12 years, the death sentence sat uncarried out. The families of the victims waited. Now, under President Trump, the wait is over.
