‘Nuts, absurd, dumb’: Trump plan mocked

Donald Trump’s idea to reopen the world’s most famous jail has been labelled “not serious” with a $400m price tag to do just the bare minimum.

Donald Trump’s plan to reopen the notorious Alcatraz prison has been blasted as “absurd”, “nuts” and “the dumbest proposal”.

Alcatraz, lying in San Francisco Bay in view of the Golden Gate Bridge, may be one of the most famous jails in the world but the sheer expense of reopening and running the relatively small complex has been labelled as a not starter.

Particularly when perfectly suitable jails already exist across the US.

“It’s totally inoperable,” said one historian.

On Sunday night, the US president said America had been “plagued by vicious, violent and repast criminal offenders … for too long”.

“No longer will we tolerate these serial offenders who spread filth, bloodshed, and mayhem on our streets.”

“That is why, today, I am directing the Bureau of Prisons, together with the Department of Justice, FBI, and Homeland Security, to reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt ALCATRAZ, to house America’s most ruthless and violent offenders.”

The Bureau of Prisons has said it would comply with “presidential orders”. Although, so far, all there has been is a social media post and not an executive order.

None of Mr Trump’s senior officials appear to have publicly lauded the move. Even Elon Musk, keen Tweeter as he is, has so far not chimed in.

It’s thought it could cost hundreds of millions of dollars just to shore up the existing prison let alone build a new one. (Photo by Noah Berger / AFP)

‘Nuts’

Closed in 1963 due to its increasingly decrepit state, the idea of reopening Alcatraz has baffled many.

“Alcatraz closed as a federal penitentiary more than sixty years ago,” wrote Democrat congresswoman, former House speaker and San Francisco resident Nancy Pelosi on social media on Sunday,

“It is now a very popular national park and major tourist attraction.

“The President’s proposal is not a serious one”.

Some responses were more direct. California Senator Scott Weiner said the idea was “absurd”.

“He wants to turn Alcatraz into a domestic gulag,” he said on Instagram.

“This is both nuts and terrifying”.

US President Donald Trump said a reopened Alcatraz could house the “most violent offenders”. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Some Trump supporters on social media have welcomed the move saying the harsh conditions were “feared” and reopening Alcatraz would be an “iconic deterrent” for the “worst of worst”.

Potentially there’s a comparison between Mr Trump’s admiration for El Salvador’s CECOT mega prison – from where inmates are said to never leave – and his enthusiasm for a new Alcatraz.

It might allow the Trump administration to send high profile US inmates to a feared prison within the country if the president’s aim of sending the to El Salvador ends up being illegal.

US Representative and former speaker Nancy Pelosi was one of the first to rubbish Donald Trump’s Alcatraz plan. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP)

But historians have pointed out that while the Alcatraz of old might have been notorious, it was also becoming notoriously bad at living up to its reputation.

For one, people kept escaping from the unescapable prison.

In 1962, three prisoners dug through Alcatraz’s crumbling walls with nothing more than spoons. It was later discovered they had set up an entire workshop to aid their escape which none of the staff had noticed.

They escaped the island on a raft and were never seen again.

Six months later another prisoner escaped and swan the 2km across the bay. He was recaptured but it showed Alcatraz was not the fortress it made out.

More than that though, it was too old, too difficult and too expensive to keep up.

Food, fuel and water had to be shipped in and sewage shipped out. Even electricity was patchy.

“Alcatraz was nearly three times more expensive to operate than any other Federal prison (in 1959 the daily per capita cost at Alcatraz was $10.10 compared with $3.00 at USP Atlanta),” states the Bureau of Prisons on its website, the same body which Mr Trump has now told to look at reopening the complex.

“For instance, the island had no source of freshwater, so nearly one million gallons of water had to be barged to the island each week.”

Downtown San Francisco is seen from Alcatraz Island Monday, May 5, 2025, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)

‘Totally inoperable’

Alcatraz historian John Martin told the San Francisco Chronicle the current cell block was “totally inoperable”.

“If the discussion is to rebuild the prison building to hold people, I don’t think that would be feasible,” he said.

“It would have to be torn down and rebuilt.”

Rebuilding, as Mr Trump seems to want, would be a costly and difficult exercise.

Firstly, the island is designated as US national historic landmark. There would be sure to be push back on demolishing the old buildings – so redolent of the jail’s history – to build a new block.

Then there’s the 1.6 million visitors to Alacatrz that would no longer be able to visit and would take their $A93 million in entrance fees, which help pay for the island’s upkeep, elsewhere.

Rocky Alcatraz also isn’t that large. At around 9 hectares, it’s half the size of Sydney Harbour’s Cockatoo Island, for instance.

That diminutive size meant that at its maximum it housed only 336 prisoners. Fort Dix, in New Jersey, is the US’ largest federal jail and houses more than 4000 inmates.

The prison cells on Alcatraz Island are shown Monday, May 5, 2025, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)

$400m just to shore up building

How much it would cost to either rehabilitate or knock down Alcatraz and start again is, at this point, guess work. However, some have done some back of the envelope sums.

One of those is Brian Krassenstein, an entrepreneur and long-time Trump critic.

“Hands down, the dumbest proposal I’ve heard,” he said on X.

Mr Krassenstein said the “price tag was straight out of a Bond movie”.

“At least $175-250M ($A270 – $A390 million) just to shore up crumbling concrete, retrofit for earthquakes, and install 21st-century security tech,” he said.

“Everything must be barged in, and raw sewage barged out.

“That pushes the annual budget to 3× a comparable mainland prison, roughly $70 – 75 M ($A109 – $A116m) – every single year.”

Mr Krassenstein added that “saltwater eats money”.

“Constant bay spray corrodes metal and concrete; maintenance is a never-ending, gold-plated headache”.

There’s also how the Trump administration would justify spending hundreds of millions of dollars on a folly of a jail when it’s entire reason for creating DOGE was to root out wasteful government spending.

“Reopening Alcatraz isn’t ‘tough on crime,’” said Mr Krassenstein. “It’s tough on taxpayers, and easy on rust”.

Originally published as ‘Nuts, absurd, dumb’: Trump plan mocked