Alcatraz Alcatraz
Alcatraz was featured in the Clint Eastwood starrer, "Escape from Alcatraz." Aldric RIVAT/Unsplash

KEY POINTS

  • Trump said the 'substantially' improved Alcatraz will house the country's 'most ruthless and violent offenders'
  • He told reporters that the 'idea' of reopening Alcatraz was triggered by how 'radicalized judges' have been acting on immigrants
  • Many X users believe Trump is only serving his own 'vanity' in his bid to reopen the costly prison

U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday ordered the rebuilding and reopening of the Alcatraz prison, an infamous former prison that had to shut down due to high operating costs.

In a post on his Truth Social account, the Republican leader said he is directing the Bureau of Prisons (BOP), in cooperation with other related federal agencies, including the FBI, to "substantially" rebuild and ultimately reopen Alcatraz "to house America's most ruthless and violent offenders."

Trump's supporters were quick to praise his order on Elon Musk-owned X, but many others raised issue with the initiative, especially considering the Trump administration's massive cuts to some critical programs such as medical and scientific research.

Alcatraz was open for 29 years and was the subject of multiple escape attempts by convicted criminals, among them was the infamous escape of three inmates that was dramatized in the film "Escape from Alcatraz" that starred Clint Eastwood in 1979.

Trump Says Alcatraz Reopening Bid Due to 'Radicalized Judges'

Later Sunday, Trump told reporters at the White House that his initiative to reopen the infamous penitentiary was "just an idea" that came up due to "radicalized judges" across the country demanding due process for illegal migrants.

"I guess because so many of these radicalized judges, they want to have trials for ... every single person that's in our country illegally," he said, noting that the judges' requests for due process "would mean millions of trials."

He went on to insist that while Alcatraz was indeed "a sad symbol" over the years, it has also become "a symbol of law and order."

The Alcatraz prison, located in an island in California, shut down in 1963 because the prison was "nearly three times more expensive to operate than any other Federal prison," as per the BOP's website.

It was later taken over by the National Park Service and receives over a million visitors around the world annually.

X Users Blast Trump's Plan

As soon as news of Trump's Alcatraz plan spread, X users who were against the idea criticized the president.

Mike Nellis, who formerly served as a senior advisor to ex-Vice President Kamala Harris, said it was unbelievable that the United States "has no money to pay for cancer research for kids" and yet it has the budget to rebuild the prison "for Trump's vanity."

Mario Pawlowski, a rising figure on X, said Trump's actions, most recently his announcement regarding Alcatraz, is the beginning of the U.S. president's "psychotic emperor phase."

"This isn't trolling anymore. This is clinical delusion. The tariffs on movies. Reopening Alcatraz. These aren't policies. This is a man deep in a psychotic loop thinking revenge is leadership and trolling is governance," Pawloski wrote.

Controversial social media personality Brian Krassenstein said reopening Alcatraz "isn't tough on crime" but instead is "tough on taxpayers, and easy on rust."

It remains to be seen when remodeling and other reconstruction work will begin on what some on X are already calling "Magatraz."

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