US Military to Livestream Execution of Former US Major by Firing Squad

US secretary of war Pete Hegeseth confirmed, during a 7 October 2026 interview aboard USS Abraham Lincoln, that former US Army Major Nidal Hasan will be executed by firing squad, and this will be livestreamed globally. US president Donald Trump approved the execution that same day. And concerns about how this might impact upon the people of this country are rising.

The proposed US military execution of Hasan by firing squad will be the first such procedure since World War II. Hasan, a former US military psychiatrist, is being executed in response to a shooting rampage he perpetrated at Fort Hood in Texas in 2009. This saw Hasan murder 13 people, which was an act spurred by his opposition to the US war on terror. And Hasan is a Palestinian American man.

Hegseth described the execution by firing squad as a “no-brainer”. “Army major betrays his country,” the secretary of war told Real America’s Voice last week, “Radical Islamist kills a bunch of Americans at Fort Hood. Of course, we are going to do it at Fort Hood. We are going to do it on a Thursday. We are going to do it at 1 o’clock, which is when he did it.”

Global news reports on the slated execution are questioning why the Trump White House is preparing to commit such an antiquated and aggressive form of state retribution, and the obvious answer is it sends a message about the shift towards authoritarianism in the second coming of Trump’s USA. And this decision further aligns with Hegseth’s gung-ho Christian nationalist stance.

The development has further been widely condemned across the Australian political spectrum. The Australian Greens have called on the eSafety commissioner to block local viewing of the shooting, while PM Anthony Albanese has said his government will do all that it can to ensure it’s not streamed locally. But the broader concerns this raises are about the viability of the Australian and US alliance.

Killing in the name of

“I don’t believe anyone has asked you on air about this yet, so I wanted to get you on the record” Real America’s Voice reporter Jack Posobiec said to Hegseth on board USS Abraham Lincoln last week, and he went on to ask about the “huge news” regarding Major Hassan and the firing squad, in terms of how the decision was made and what the process will be.

Hegseth described the 3 December 2026 slated execution as involving “soldiers with rifles executing the firing squad”. He added that the revival of a World War II procedure comes on the back of his appreciation of the “mentality” the US military had in the 1940s. And Hegseth further explained that US World War II posturing was all about winning and “standing your ground” when facing an enemy.

The prospect of the livestreamed execution has led many to asked perplexed questions about why this is occurring. The shift toward live executions does tend, however, to be in keeping with many changes to US foreign policy and its rising military actions since the second coming of the Trump administration. And belligerent aggression and violence have been the hallmarks of this change.

The Trump administration lied when it promised during the 2024 election not to progress overseas wars. It bombed Nigeria on Christmas Day 2025. It attacked Venezuela and kidnapped its president on 3 January 2026. It began the ongoing war of aggression on Iran on 28 February. And the Pentagon has extrajudicially killed 238 likely fishermen in the Caribbean and the Pacific since September 2025.

“So, this was a radical Islamist terror attack,” Hegseth further insisted of Hasan’s crimes last week. “Remember what Obama called it? Workplace violence. I mean that is what we’re up against. That is the worldview we are up against – workplace violence. We know what it is. It was a radical Islamist in uniform, inside the ranks. So, he is going to get a firing squad of soldiers, as it should be.”

Christian fascists

The execution by firing squad, the shift in title of the Department of Defence to the Department of War and the proliferation of military conflicts and extrajudicial killings overseas, do not only align with the Trump administration’s authoritarian agenda, but they’re in keeping with Hegseth’s Christian fundamentalist beliefs.

Hegseth is a member of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC), which is an international body that represents a particularly strict branch of Protestant conservatism. These Christian nationalists advocate for biblical law, Christian patriarchy and a rejection of secularism and religious pluralism. So, the political should be the religious.

The current US war secretary has gradually been inserting Christian religious doctrine into his official military addresses and he’s evoked his Christian beliefs to justify military actions abroad. Hegseth often refers to the crusades of the Middle Ages, which were centuries long religious wars between Christians and Muslims. And Hegseth appears to consider he is engaged in religious warfare.

Much of Trump’s supporter base is made up of white Christian evangelicals. Many of these Christians believe in the rapture, or the end times second coming of Christ, which will take place soon. Many are also Christian Zionists, who believe the second coming won’t occur until Jewish people are established in Jerusalem or the Holy Land. But when the Christians are saved, the Jews will not be.

CREC belief differs from popular Christian evangelism as it is postmillennialist. So, it considers most apocalyptic biblical events have already occurred, and while Christ will be returning, that will occur after a long millennium of peace on Earth, after global Christianity has been established. And while Hegseth may be engaging in holy war, the millennium is achieved through spiritual conversion.

Tuning in down under

In response to a call from Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young for this nation to proactively prevent the livestreaming of the execution, the Australian eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant has stated that she doesn’t have the power to stop the broadcast, but she added that online platforms do have a responsibility to protect users under Australia’s online safety regulatory framework.

Prime minister Albanese deemed the execution proposal as “abhorrent” on Tuesday, and he added that Australia has a bipartisan position on opposing the death penalty. The PM reiterated Grant’s sentiment on it being up to digital platforms to police such content, and he said, he’d be in contact with the various social media platforms about preventing the content becoming available locally.

Newly minted Australian Greens leader David Shoebridge told the press on Monday that the idea of the livestreamed execution is “obscene”. He considers that it’s placing a strain on the US and Australian alliance, as it’s supposed to be based on “shared values”. And he added that the livestreamed execution of a Palestinian American man is a line that should not be crossed.

“If our government won’t call out the United States when they’re livestreaming an execution as some kind of snuff movie to pump up Donald Trump’s popularity in the United States, if they won’t call that out, where’s the red line?” Shoebridge questioned before the press early on Monday morning. “It’s obscene.”

“How is it that the Greens are the only party that is saying that livestreaming an execution, as some kind of spectator sport, is a red line, and it that should be stopped?”

Image: Still taken from Pentagon of Hegseth Addresses Cadet Wing at Air Force Academy footage, which is available on the US Department of War Multimedia site for the press