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On big day for his bill, Trump heads to ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

On big day for his bill, Trump heads to ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

The president’s expedition might have seemed a bit off-piste, but his visit to the detention centre was not without purpose. It had been manufactured to highlight the most winning issue – immigration.

President Donald Trump listens as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks during a tour of “Alligator Alcatraz”. AP

While the fate of his entire legislative agenda was being decided, President Donald Trump travelled 1600 kilometres away from Washington to hang out in a makeshift detention centre for migrants that had been thrown together on an old airstrip in the Florida Everglades.

The place had already been nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz” by Republicans, on account of the fact that it’s surrounded by kilometres of marshland seething with reptiles. Trump instantly thrilled to the alligator alliteration – as he said on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST): “I looked outside and that’s not a place I want to go hiking anytime soon” – and ordered up a tour.

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Original URL: https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/trump-musk-battle-restarts-after-billionaire-bashes-bill-20250702-p5mbsp