Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he was cancelling Pete Hegseth’s plans to livestream a military execution. Mr Trump stated that "many very good and well-meaning people would rather not watch him die."
Mr Hegseth had announced last week that the US public would be able to watch the execution of Nidal Hasan, scheduled for 3 December at Fort Hood, Texas. Hasan, a former army major and psychiatrist, was sentenced to death by a military court in August 2013 for killing 13 people and wounding 32 in 2009.
Douglas Wilson, a co-founder and de facto leader of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC), welcomed the initial announcement. Mr Wilson, whose church Mr Hegseth attends, has promoted capital punishment for decades and stated he prefers "public executions to those conducted in the recesses of a prison somewhere in the middle of the night."