President Trump said Monday that those responsible for kidnapping Nancy Guthrie must release her unharmed or face what he described as the “most severe” federal consequences, as reported[1] by The New York Post.
In a brief phone interview with The Post, Trump said he would want the Justice Department to seek capital punishment if the 84-year-old mother of NBC “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie is killed.
The president said the abductors would face “very, very severe — the most severe” federal penalties if Nancy Guthrie is found dead after being taken from her home outside Tucson on Feb. 1.
Trump threatens kidnappers with death penalty if Nancy Guthrie isn’t returned alive in call with The Posthttps://t.co/05jPQoJRLn[2]
When asked whether that meant the Department of Justice would pursue the death penalty, Trump responded: “The most, yeah — that’s true.”
Nancy Guthrie was abducted from her suburban Arizona home earlier this month. Investigators believe she may still be alive as law enforcement continues its search.
Trump called Savannah Guthrie on Feb. 4 to offer federal assistance in the investigation.
Savannah Guthrie attends 3rd Annual Project Healthy Minds World Mental Health Day Gala at Spring Studios in New York, NY on October 9, 2025
The FBI later recovered images and video showing a masked man standing at the front door of the residence. Authorities described the footage as disturbing.
The president has not spoken extensively in public about the case, but investigators have been working around the clock to locate the missing mother of three.
Over the weekend, authorities conducted flights over desert areas in Arizona using a high-tech Bluetooth device designed to detect a signal from Nancy Guthrie’s pacemaker.
Officials have not publicly disclosed whether the efforts yielded any results.
JUST IN: Trump confirms something big is about to go down in the Nancy Guthrie case. Sounds like they’re getting close to an arrest. pic.twitter.com/q6Zl802AtE[5]
Federal charges are frequently brought in high-profile kidnapping cases, particularly when there is an interstate element or when federal statutes are implicated.
Arizona allows the death penalty under state law. However, many of the 109 inmates currently on the state’s death row have been there for decades. Since 2022, Arizona has carried out two executions.
The pace slowed in part due to a nearly two-year pause imposed by the Democrat-led state government, which was lifted in late 2024.
The federal government separately maintains the authority to seek capital punishment. It has done so in some of the nation’s most high-profile cases, including those involving Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Pittsburgh synagogue shooter Robert Bowers, and Dylann Roof.
Former President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 men on federal death row, excluding Tsarnaev, Bowers, and Roof.
Officials in the Trump administration have said they plan to transfer the remaining federal death row inmates to a federal supermax prison to serve their sentences under strict conditions.
The search for Nancy Guthrie remains ongoing as local, state, and federal authorities coordinate efforts to locate her and identify those responsible for her disappearance.
