President Donald Trump is calling for the notorious prison and now historical landmark, Alcatraz, in San Francisco, California, to be rebuilt larger and reopened to house the country’s most ruthless and violent criminals.
Trump made the announcement in a Truth Social post on Sunday evening.
“REBUILD, AND OPEN ALCATRAZ!” the president said. “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,” Trump continued, adding that it’s supposed to be this way. “No longer will we tolerate these Serial Offenders who spread filth, bloodshed, and mayhem on our streets.”
Trump is all in on reversing with intensity the indulgences of the prior administration. If Brandon allowed an invasion of foreigners without structure or oversight, then we’re going to arrest, imprison and deport them, and we’ll use the most notorious supermax prison to do it.
I’m all for reclaiming and reimagining that jetty of rock off the San Francisco coast. And it’s clear why Trump wants to do so:
Trump, in his social media post, said the country can’t be held hostage by “criminals, thugs, and Judges that are afraid to do their job and allow us to remove criminals, who came into our Country illegally.”
The Republican has railed against federal judges who have slowed his effort to boot alleged gangbangers and ship them off to the infamous El Salvador megaprison.
AP wrote, “Trump, returning to the White House on Sunday night after a weekend in Florida, said he’d come up with the idea because of frustrations with “radicalized judges” who have insisted those being deported receive due process. Alcatraz, he said, has long been a “symbol of law and order. You know, it’s got quite a history.”
Fine. If activist judges want to bottleneck Trump’s executive power, he’s got to find another way to deal with the threat. Funny enough, Don Jr. floated the idea of reopening Alacatraz back in January.
After his father’s announcement of creating a facility at the military base in Cuba to hold thousands of undocumented immigrants, Don Jr. tweeted, “Maybe we should also reopen Alcatraz?”
Being 1.25-miles from shore, Alcatraz has a reputation as being inescapable, even though 36 inmates tried and failed over 14 attempts during the years it was open (1934-1963). (There may have been three who made it in 1962, but there’s no definitive proof.) It used to hold some of America’s most violent and notorious criminals including gangsters James “Whitey” Bulger, Al Capone and George “Machine Gun” Kelly. It closed in 1963 after “island operations proved far more costly than mainland-based prisons.”
It’s both a symbolic and practical solution to a big problem.
Maybe Trump will hire some of El Salvador’s prison wardens to teach us how to handle the most violent offenders in our country. They’ll still get ‘due process,’ but we don’t need to make it pleasant for them.
A programming note: my buddy Bruce Gust will be filling in for me starting Wednesday as we visit with the littles. He’s always got good things to share with a Christian emphasis. My last post before break will be tomorrow.