Sometimes, even during the Trump era, backlash still works. President Donald Trump on Thursday canceled Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plan to livestream the U.S. military’s upcoming execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan. This probably shouldn’t have been a hard decision or even needed to be a decision in the first place. The livestream, which Hegseth announced last week, was an instantly reviled idea. The U.S. long ago abandoned the practice of public executions, which are still only conducted by pariah states. The plan drew immediate bipartisan condemnation from members of Congress and triggered global revulsion. According to two new polls, the vast majority of Americans are opposed to the idea. The U.S. Army general who approved Hasan’s death sentence following his court martial was against it, too, as were 72 former top military officials. It wasn’t even clear how or where the Pentagon would be able to livestream it or could without violating U.S. Army regulations. Politically, Hegseth’s apparently half-baked plan was dead on arrival, even if it took Trump nearly a week to officially cancel it.

“Many very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die, through streaming, or through any other visual device,” Trump........

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