Trump sends mixed signals on livestreaming Hasan execution

President Trump seemed undecided Friday on whether the execution of former Army Maj. Nidal Hasan will be livestreamed like the Pentagon announced.

“Well, they’re making a determination about that, but he will be killed, it will be through firing squad,” Trump told reporters before departing for a rally in Syracuse, N.Y. “He killed 13, 14 people, badly wounded 20-some-odd people and he’s totally nuts.”

“So, I really don’t care how he goes, as long as he goes, and I think that the death penalty is a very worthy way of going for him,” he continued.

He didn’t answer whether he would watch it. The Pentagon said Thursday the firing squad execution of Hasan, the convicted Fort Hood, Texas, shooter, would be livestreamed on Dec. 3.

It will be the military’s first execution in six decades. The plan to livestream it quickly drew fierce criticism from Republicans and Democrats.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) wrote on social platform X that he agrees Hasan should face the death penalty, “but making his execution public and streaming it? Beyond disgusting.”

“Public executions are what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do. It should not be happening in America,” Tillis wrote.

Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Jack Reed (D-R.I.) said in a statement that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plan is “a gift to anti-American terrorist recruiters” and is “absolutely shameful and damaging to America’s interests and core values.”

Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, opened fire at Fort Hood in 2009, killing 13 people.

Vice President Vance told reporters Friday in Lima, Ohio, that he wouldn’t be watching the livestream.

“I’ve seen those announcements. I don’t know if that’s actually going to happen,” Vance said.

“So whatever the controversy is about the method of the execution, I hope that people don’t forget that this is a guy who brutally murdered a lot of innocent people,” he continued. “Now that said, if it’s ultimately livestreamed, I’m not going to be watching it.”