President Donald Trump said the U.S. government has seen “virtually no sign” of Austin Tice, the U.S. Marine Corps veteran and freelance journalist for McClatchy who went missing 13 years ago while covering Syria’s descent into war.
“There’s no sign of Austin, incredible young guy,” the president said in the Oval Office Monday evening. “We will never — until we find out something definitive one way or the other — we will never stop looking for him. But we have been, and the response? Just a lot of dead ends.”
Following December’s upheaval in Syria, which prompted then-President Bashar al-Assad to flee to Russia, there had been some glimmer of hope that rebel forces could be helpful in finding answers about Tice’s whereabouts. Images of Assad’s prisoners being freed and reunited with their families filled U.S. officials and the Tice family with optimism.
That month, the Tice family said during a Washington press conference that they had been told by a trustworthy source that Austin was still alive. Shortly after Damascus fell, an NBC reporter followed a tip from a former inmate in the Syrian prison system who said he had seen Tice while in captivity in 2022. The report captured images inside of a prison cell that showed clear markings on the walls of an American.
But while the president on Monday praised the commitment of Tice’s mother, Debra Tice, he dampened expectations that the new administration had made any progress in locating her son.
“The problem is there’s never been a sighting. You know, sometimes you’ll have somebody you’re looking for, but there’s a sighting. And there’s never been a sighting of Austin. But we are out there, and we have great respect for his family and for his mother, she’s been unbelievable,” Trump said.
The president’s posture is different from his predecessor, who maintained as recently as December that he believed that Tice is alive. Former President Joe Biden said “we think we can get him back,” even as he acknowledged he had “no direct evidence” of Tice’s status.
National Press Club President Mike Balsamo praised Trump for continuing to keep Tice in the public’s consciousness.
“When the president of the United States speaks Austin’s name, it sends a message — not just to our government, but to those holding him,” Balsamo said. “It tells them the world is still watching. But saying his name is only the beginning. Now we need bold, sustained action to bring Austin home.”
Balsamo urged the president and his national security team to take concrete steps to help find Tice. Those include pressuring Russian President Vladimir Putin to ask al-Assad directly about Tice’s whereabouts and deploying an envoy to re-engage the Syrian government about Tice’s case.
Balsamo also asked the Trump administration to engage Iranian officials in helping to locate General Bassam Merhaj al-Hassan, who could possess knowledge of Austin’s fate, and to speak with al-Assad directly.
“The Syrian president is believed to know what happened to Austin Tice. A direct conversation could yield answers that years of backchanneling have not,” Balsamo said in a statement.
The Tice family did not immediately respond to a request asking for reaction to the president’s remarks.
Debra Tice had expressed frustration with the previous administration’s efforts to secure her son’s release and expressed more optimism that Trump would make her son a priority.
The last known footage of Tice was posted in 2012, showing him blindfolded and being paraded by men who forced him to recite Islamic prayer.
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