During a Sunday evening blitz of social media posts, Donald Trump demanded that one of the most notorious prisons in American history be reopened.
Incidentally, the president’s sudden push for the tourist destination of Alcatraz to once again become a maximum-security prison complex came just hours after a South Florida PBS station aired the 1979 classic film Escape from Alcatraz. The president spent the past weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort, which is located in Palm Beach.
“REBUILD, AND OPEN ALCATRAZ!” Trump blared on Truth Social just before 6 p.m. local time on Sunday. “For too long, America has been plagued by vicious, violent, and repeat Criminal Offenders, the dregs of society, who will never contribute anything other than Misery and Suffering. When we were a more serious Nation, in times past, we did not hesitate to lock up the most dangerous criminals, and keep them far away from anyone they could harm.”
According to local television listings, WLRN 26 – Miami’s local PBS affiliate – broadcasted Escape from Alcatraz on Saturday at 9 p.m. ET. The movie, which stars Clint Eastwood, was re-aired the following morning at 11 a.m.
The biographical drama recounts the 1962 escape attempt from the island fortress, which is located in San Francisco Bay. While the prison was touted as being escape-proof throughout its infamous history, the film suggests that Frank Morris – played by Eastwood – and two other fugitives may have been successful in their mission.
While it is still a mystery whether the daring escape attempt was successful, Alcatraz closed less than a year later in 1963. One of the main reasons for its closure, as critics pointed out after Trump floated the idea of once again making it a prison, was that it costs roughly three times more to run it as a standard facility. Due to its location on a small island, all supplies — including fresh water – needed to be brought in by boat.
Additionally, experts have noted that it would cost millions of dollars and take years to rebuild the facility and make it a modern, functional prison.
The Independent has reached out to the White House for comment.
During an Oval Office press conference Monday, the president was asked why he decided that he needed to resurrect Alcatraz as a prison after it had been shuttered for decades, prompting Trump to deliver a rambling response that included him touting his own cinematic vision.
“Well, I guess I was supposed to be a moviemaker,” Trump — who recently announced his intention to implement 100 percent tariffs on foreign films — declared, adding: “I mean, it represents something very strong, very powerful, in terms of law and order. Our country needs law and order. Alcatraz is, I would say, the ultimate, right? Alcatraz, Sing Sing, and Alcatraz, the movies. But it’s right now a museum, believe it or not. A lot of people go there.”
Referencing the flee attempt by Morris, alongside brothers John and Clarence Anglin, the president said that “nobody ever escaped” but “one person almost got there.” In the president’s telling, though, “they found his clothing rather badly ripped up” and full of “shark bites.”
In the end, Trump described Alcatraz as representing “something that’s both horrible and beautiful and strong and miserable [and] weak.”
The president has a tendency to react to what he sees on television, most prominently by his virulent cable news viewing habits. A countless number of Truth Social posts and tweets – including some he made Sunday – have been in direct response to segments he had just seen on Fox News or other networks.
It would stand out, of course, if the president had indeed tuned into PBS on Saturday night or Sunday morning, especially considering his recent executive order calling for the government to pull back all funding of public broadcasting.
