President Trump said Monday that anyone responsible for abducting Nancy Guthrie must ensure her safe return or face what he described as the toughest possible federal punishment.

Speaking in a brief phone interview with The NY Post, Trump made clear that if the 84-year-old mother of NBC “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie is killed, he would expect the Justice Department to pursue capital punishment.

He stated that those behind the Feb. 1 kidnapping from her home outside Tucson would face “very, very severe — the most severe” federal consequences if she is found dead.

When asked directly whether that meant the Department of Justice would seek the death penalty, Trump responded: “The most, yeah — that’s true.”

On Feb. 4, the president personally called Savannah Guthrie to offer federal support in the investigation. The FBI later obtained disturbing images and video showing a masked individual at the front door of the suburban residence.

Trump has largely refrained from making public comments about the case while authorities continue an intensive search for the elderly mother of three, whom investigators believe could still be alive.

In an effort to locate her, law enforcement officials conducted aerial searches over the desert terrain during the weekend, using specialized Bluetooth technology designed to detect a signal from Nancy Guthrie’s pacemaker.

Federal charges are frequently pursued in prominent criminal cases, especially when state lines may be involved or when federal laws are implicated. Although Arizona maintains the death penalty, many of the 109 prisoners currently on the state’s death row have remained there for decades.

Since 2022, Arizona has carried out only two executions, partly due to a nearly two-year suspension ordered by the Democrat-led state government, which was lifted in late 2024.

Separately, the federal government has authority to seek capital punishment and typically reserves it for the most high-profile crimes, including the cases of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Pittsburgh synagogue shooter Robert Bowers, and racist mass murderer Dylann Roof.

Joe Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 inmates on federal death row, leaving Tsarnaev, Bowers, and Roof excluded from that action. Trump officials have indicated they intend to transfer the remaining federal death row inmates to a federal supermax facility, where they would serve their sentences under strict conditions.