Donald Trump and his advisers are debating whether to call off plans to livestream the firing squad execution of the Fort Hood shooter, with Trump having remarked privately that he did not initially know that Nidal Hasan was paralyzed from the waist down, two sources familiar with the discussions told CNN.

The president was not aware that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was announcing last week that the administration planned to let the public watch the execution, the sources said, and was not sure what to make of it at first. Trump was, however, firmly behind the decision to execute Hasan via firing squad, multiple officials told CNN, and he’s often defended it in public.

  • melsaskca@lemmy.ca
    10·
    15 hours ago

    First the Circus Maximus and then the eventual fall of Rome. It’s just a little bit of history repeating. If trump buys a fiddle (or lute, or lyre) we’re all screwed.

  • Snapz@lemmy.world
    4·
    19 hours ago

    There are no “people” that hold space in trump’s addled mind, there are only optics for an omnipresent TV audience.

  • orioler25@lemmy.world
    14·
    2 days ago

    Oh, this is genuinely a problem for them. They want to normalize the kind of violence that targets vulnerable groups disproportionately, such as disabled people, but they need a “deserving” victim to remain palletable enough to the liberal masses so that they can gradually normalize this kind of public violence. But, now if they pull out of this after international pressure, it’ll look weak and make it even harder to try again.

  • DaddleDew@lemmy.world
    89·
    2 days ago

    Showing the execution of a wheelchair bound person would be DEI and Trump can’t possibly have that.

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
    831·
    2 days ago

    I’ve been telling people, this is to normalize public execution for “treason” the main demographic trump cared about was a soldier firing on other soldiers.

    A big strong man standing there is a propaganda message.

    But trumps never consider injured soldiers as soldiers, he “only likes winners”.

    So dude being in a wheelchair wouldnt send the message the fascists want to send; that it doesn’t matter how tough you are they’ll get you.

    It’s always just been about the optics of it, and using it to normalize political violence. That’s why he never faced a terrorism charge, they want the label to be “traitor” because that’s anyone not for the current administration.

    Terrorists need to take action or at least plan actual attacks. They want to be able to go after anyone who doesn’t say they’re stunning and brave.

  • baddu@lemmy.world
    43·
    2 days ago

    Kind of a weird place to draw the line when you routinely rape children, but okay

  • rabber@lemmy.caEnglish
    23·
    2 days ago

    lol just imagine firing squad unloading on a guy in a wheelchair tho

    • jjagaimo@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      7·
      6 hours ago

      The current manual (which would probably be revised since it was last updated in the 1940s) calls for tying them up on a pole so they’d have to crucify him to get him standing upright

      The officer charged with execution will… Cause a post with proper rings placed therein for securing the prisoner in an upright position to be erected at the place of execution… After a reasonable time, he will order the sergeant of the execution party to secure the prisoner to the post and to place the hood over his head. Then the medical officer will place the target over the prisoner’s heart

    • orioler25@lemmy.world
      3·
      2 days ago

      That’s obviously the problem. They want to normalize the kind of violence that targets vulnerable groups disproportionately, such as disabled people, but they need a “deserving” victim to remain palletable enough to the liberal masses so that they can gradually normalize this kind of violence.

  • pelespirit@sh.itjust.works
    201·
    2 days ago

    One thing trump is great at, seeing how this is going to be a bad look.

    And even after Hegseth posted on X on Thursday confirming that the Pentagon planned to livestream the execution, Trump polled several of his advisers and allies about how to proceed.

    It was during the those conversations that Trump learned Hasan was paralyzed from the waist down — he was shot in the back by law enforcement during the 2009 shooting at Ford Hood — and that he now uses a wheelchair, the sources said, which made showing the execution publicly less palatable to the president.