President Donald Trump's approval of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's order for the public execution of Nidal Malik Hasan — which would be America's first public execution in nearly a century — has reportedly stunned even members of the president's own inner circle.

According to reporting by The New York Times' Peter Baker published Friday, the idea "seemed to shock even some of his colleagues in the administration."

"Vice President JD Vance cast doubt that it would be livestreamed, telling reporters that 'I don't know that that's going to happen' and adding that he would not watch if it does," Baker wrote. He added, "But Mr. Trump said he signed off on it. 'Did I approve' he said. 'Absolutely I did.'"

Baker noted that "no public execution has been conducted in the United States in 90 years, and the decision to conduct this one in front of an audience would put the country in the company of Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea and Somalia."

The last such execution in the United States took place in 1936, when Rainey Bethea was hanged before a crowd in Owensboro, Kentucky. Executions in the country have since been carried out behind prison walls, and no member of the U.S. military has been executed since 1961, when Army private John Bennett was hanged at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

"Even some supporters of capital punishment flinched at the idea of livestreaming Mr. Hasan's execution, calling it medieval and barbaric," Baker reported. Among them was Senator Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina, an outgoing lawmaker who retains influence within the president's party in the Senate.

"Hasan should face the death penalty, but making his execution public and streaming it? Beyond disgusting," Tillis said. "Public executions are what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do. It should not be happening in America."

Hasan murdered 13 people and injured 32 others at a military base in Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009. Then an Army major and psychiatrist, Hasan was convicted and sentenced to death by a military court-martial in 2013, and under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, no such sentence can be carried out without the president's approval.

Outrage has also come from conservatives and military professionals outside the administration. On Thursday, Billy Binion, a reporter for the libertarian magazine Reason, wrote on X: "this is sick. You can support justice for Nidal Hasan's victims without making his execution a source of entertainment. This administration so often governs for the online mob. It's depraved."

Glenn Greenwald, formerly of The Intercept and at times sympathetic to Trump, declared: "there are a very small number of countries that still carry out public executions. Those are the countries we are constantly told are uniquely primitive, barbaric, sick and evil. It's revealing that Pete Hegseth wants the US to join that group but also entirely unsurprising."

Retired intelligence officer Travis Akers argued: "this is vile. Does he deserve the death penalty? One million times yes and may he rot in h - - -. Should this be streamed for entertainment like the Romans throwing Christians to lions? Absolutely not."

Separately, mental health experts who spoke with AlterNet described Trump as a "maniac" who appeals to racism and sexism.