U.S. President Donald Trump speaks next to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 10, 2025.
Under President Donald Trump, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has broken a number of precedents, from targeting Black and female officers in the military to purgingtop officers for not being sufficiently loyal to the Republican administration. Now he is ordering the first public execution in modern American history.
"Pentagon officials said on Thursday that the Army officer convicted in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting would be executed in public, a practice that ended in the United States nearly a century ago and is most commonly carried out in a handful of countries including Iran, North Korea and the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan," reported Chris Cameron of The New York Times on Thursday. "The Pentagon said in a statement that the military execution, scheduled for Dec. 3, would also be broadcast via livestream. Such a broadcast has little precedent, and releasing video of executions is most often associated with extremist militant groups like the Islamic State."
On the social media platform X, commentators from all sides reacted with horror.
Billy Binion, reporter for the libertarian magazine Reason Magazine, argued, “This is sick. You can support justice for Nidal Hasan’s victims without making his execution a source of entertainment. This administration so often governs for the online mob. It’s depraved.”
Wajahat Ali of the liberal Substack The Left Hook wrote, “Public lynchings will be next.”
Glenn Greenwald, formerly of The Intercept and ideologically heterodox, said, “There are a very small number of countries that still carry out public executions. Those are the countries we are constantly told are uniquely primitive, barbaric, sick and evil. It’s revealing that Pete Hegseth wants the US to join that group but also entirely unsurprising.”
Jemele Hill of The Atlantic asked, “What’s the point of this?”
A retired intelligence officer and political commentator, Travis Akers, posted "this is vile. Does he deserve the death penalty? One million times yes and may he rot in h - - -. Should this be streamed for entertainment like the Romans throwing Christians to lions? Absolutely not."
American Immigration Council senior fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick was similarly apocalyptic, saying that "Jesus Christ, I didn't think we'd actually get to the "public executions" stage of Trump's project to roll back the last 100 years of societal development."
Tennis player and liberal Martina Navratilova declared, “They better f------ not do this. Who are we as a nation? Who are we as a people????”
GingER, a commentary account, responded, “We are the United States of Mother F------ America! F--- with us. They should soak the bullets in bacon grease and burry him in a pig pen so they can s--- on him for eternity. F--- that muslim piece of s---. He killed innocent people.”
“So it’s about him being a Muslim?" Navratilova shot back. "Hmm. He doesn’t deserve any mercy but certainly not a televised execution. Come on. Who are you???”
GingER then said, “Yeah im skeptical of people that tend to spontaneously explode.”