Did Trump want to hang Mike pence? Short answer

Executive summary — Short answer: No; the available reporting does not establish that Donald Trump personally said he wanted to hang Mike Pence, but multiple contemporaneous accounts show rioters chanted “Hang Mike Pence,” a makeshift gallows was erected, some White House aides testified Trump reacted by saying Pence “deserves” it or by repeating/defending the chant, and Trump has both denied the specific allegation and publicly defended supporters who threatened Pence ^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]}.

1. What happened at the Capitol: chants and a gallows

On January 6 a violent mob stormed the Capitol and some participants loudly chanted “Hang Mike Pence,” searched for the vice president inside the building, and erected a makeshift gallows outside as a visible threat to Pence and other officials (video and reporting shown to Congress and reported widely) ^{[1] [2] [6]}.

2. What aides and witnesses told investigators

Multiple GOP and independent reports to congressional investigators and in public testimony include accounts from White House staff and outside witnesses that when aides told Trump rioters were chanting to hang Pence, at least one senior aide relayed that Trump said Pence “deserves” it — a characterization presented to the January 6 committee by former aides such as Cassidy Hutchinson and by testimony summarized in media reporting ^{[3] [5] [7]}.

3. Direct evidence versus second‑hand testimony

There is no public, contemporaneous audio or video of Trump explicitly ordering violence against Pence; the claims that he uttered “hang” or said Pence “deserves” to be hanged come from staff recollections and testimony rather than an on‑tape command, and reporters and outlets have treated those accounts as crucial but not identical to a recorded admission ^{[5] [3] [7]}.

4. Trump’s own public statements and recorded interviews

Trump has explicitly denied telling aides that Pence “deserves” to be hanged (responding on his platform to Hutchinson’s testimony) but in a taped interview he also defended supporters who threatened Pence, calling their anger “common sense” and framing their behavior as understandable given his claims about election fraud — an audio excerpt reported by Axios and others shows Trump defending or rationalizing the chants even while denying the precise phrase was his ^{[3] [4]}.

5. How to read conflicting accounts and motives

Accounts from aides like Hutchinson, reporting from outlets such as The Atlantic, The Guardian, PBS and others, and testimony presented to investigators point in the same general direction — that Trump did not immediately act to protect Pence and that he reacted to chants in ways aides described as approving or dismissive — but those sources reflect different access, agendas and weights: aides testifying under subpoena may be criticized by Trump allies, and sympathetic outlets emphasize the threat to Pence while conservative outlets and Trump statements emphasize denials and context ^{[2] [6] [3] [4]}.

6. Reasonable conclusion based on the assembled reporting

The factual record in contemporary reporting supports that rioters sought to lynch Mike Pence and that Trump’s public and private responses ranged from denial of specific phrasing to defendiveness and apparent sympathy for the chants; however, the best available publicly reported evidence is second‑hand testimony and interviews rather than incontrovertible on‑the‑record audio of Trump explicitly saying he wanted Pence hung, so the claim that “Trump wanted to hang Mike Pence” overstates what can be proven while capturing the spirit of his equivocal responses ^{[1] [3] [5] [4]}.