Trump, Vance signal unease with Hegseth’s public execution plan

The White House has signalled a potential reversal of course after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced plans to livestream the firing squad execution of former Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, the 2009 Fort Hood shooter, prompting bipartisan outcry.

President Trump has publicly sent mixed signals on the plan, while privately telling one confidant it “might not happen,” Axios reported Monday .

Trump has given his enthusiastic endorsement for executing Hasan by firing squad, but said he “wasn’t involved in that decision” to livestream the Dec. 3 execution.

On Saturday, Trump told reporters he would “make a decision ultimately” on what to do.

“There are two thoughts: Don’t show it and show it, because you know by showing it, maybe other people won’t be doing what he did,” the president said. “So I’ll make a decision ultimately. I know what the military would like to do, but we’ll make a decision.”

Asked on Tuesday whether he had decided, Trump replied, “We’re looking at it.”

Hasan killed 13 people and injured 32 others when he opened fire at Fort Hood, Texas, in November 2009. The incident is the deadliest mass shooting on a U.S. military installation.

Vice President Vance offered a more definite tone when he told reporters Friday he will not watch the execution should it be livestreamed, even stating, “I don’t know that that’s actually going to happen.”

And House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), a top defender of the administration, said he would not watch such a livestream and intended to warn the White House against the idea.

“The concern would be that it would create a video that would be a recruiting tool for future terrorists,” Johnson said in a CBS News interview that aired over the weekend, adding, “I need to tell the White House what some of my colleagues think about that, and not everybody’s in favor of the idea.”

The comments, taken together, reflect a deep unease inside and outside the administration over Hegseth’s plan, even as they support the death sentence.

Hegseth first announced the idea Wednesday aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln in San Diego, telling far-right podcaster Jack Posobiec: “We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public, because people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things.”

Within the Army and Pentagon, the news came as a surprise to many, with questions still swirling as to how and where the execution would be livestreamed, given there are regulations about who can watch a military execution.

Also unclear is which soldiers would be selected to fire on Hasan, as well as the optics around showing the firing squad death of an immobilized 56-year-old man in a wheelchair. Hasan was paralyzed in the Fort Hood shooting when others, seeking to neutralize him, shot him four times.

Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle decried the idea as beneath American values and akin to public executions in authoritarian nations, such as Iran and North Korea. They also warned it could inspire extremists or turn the convicted mass murderer into a martyr.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) on Friday urged Hegseth to reverse the decision, writing on the social platform X she “would expect this from terrorists and dictators, but not here in America.”

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) has called the plan “beyond disgusting,” while Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.) said livestreaming executions “is what jihadists do.”

And Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) echoed Johnson’s warning that the livestream could fuel radicalization.

Even survivors of the Fort Hood shooting have questioned Hegseth’s decision to livestream Hasan’s death.

Julia Wilson, a former Defense Department civilian employee, told Fox News Digital on Monday that she wants to be there when the convicted shooter is executed, but worries about broadcasting it.

“I’m kind of shocked that they’re going to go so far as to televise it,” said Wilson. “Unfortunately, some children may end up seeing that, that don’t need to see something like that.”

Sgt. Alonzo Lunsford, who was shot seven times in the Fort Hood attack, said Monday on NewsNation’s Katie Pavlich Tonight that while he’s “excited about the firing squad,” he has an issue with children potentially seeing it.

“The young minds are not in a position to process seeing a horrific act,” Lunsford said. “It’s not for everybody’s eyes. It’s not a thing where we’re going to have a tailgate. . .. Because as a country, as a people, we’re better than that.”

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin appears to be one of the few administration officials to support a livestream killing, telling CBS News’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday that “no one has to watch it” and that Trump is “restoring American values.”

Should Hasan be executed in December, it would mark the military’s first execution in six decades.