US President Donald Trump has abandoned plans to livestream the execution of convicted Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan after objections from victims’ relatives and concerns over publicly broadcasting his death.

Trump announced the reversal on Truth Social, confirming that Hasan would still face execution by firing squad as scheduled, but that the event would not be transmitted online or through other visual platforms.

The decision followed a public controversy sparked by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, who had said in an October 8 interview that he planned to make Hasan’s execution public, a move that would have marked an unprecedented broadcast of a US execution in decades.

Trump acknowledged that a public broadcast might have served as a deterrent but said the decision had to take account of those who did not want to watch the convicted killer die.

“Many very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die, through streaming, or through any other visual device,” the president said, while maintaining that the execution would proceed.

The reversal brought relief to relatives of the victims, including Kristopher Craig, an Army veteran whose 22-year-old brother, Army Private First Class Michael Pearson, was among the 13 people killed in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting in Texas.

Craig had written to Trump and Hegseth urging them not to turn his brother’s death into part of a public spectacle, warning that he did not want his memory “tied to the public broadcast of another human being’s death.”

Reacting to the president’s decision, Craig said the proposal had caused unnecessary distress to families already affected by the massacre.

“The idea of broadcasting an execution was deeply disturbing and caused unnecessary pain and distress to people who have already endured enough,” he said, describing the controversy as avoidable.

Although welcoming the reversal, Craig said the emotional impact of the debate could not simply be erased, adding that he was grateful the families had been spared the prospect of witnessing the execution through a public broadcast.

Trump said the immediate families of the victims could attend the execution in person if they wished, arguing that they deserved to witness justice.

Hasan killed 13 people and wounded more than 30 others during the November 2009 shooting at Fort Hood, a US Army installation in Texas. Investigators linked the attack to his extremist beliefs and communications with Anwar al-Awlaki, an al-Qaeda-linked cleric.

During his court-martial, Hasan said he had acted in defence of the Taliban and described himself as having “switched sides.”

The White House’s decision also prompted questions about the handling of the proposal within the administration, although the Pentagon moved to present a united position following the reversal.

Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told Newsweek that Trump and Hegseth had discussed the decision before the president’s announcement and were “completely aligned.”

The dispute has placed the question of public access to executions at the centre of a debate involving punishment, deterrence, government transparency and the dignity of victims’ families, even as the administration maintains that Hasan’s execution will proceed as scheduled.