'Deluded or brainwashed': Trump’s proposal to reopen Alcatraz draws brutally mockery

05 May

President Donald Trump at the 2025 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland on February 22, 2025 (Gage Skidmmore/Flickr)

Opened in Northern California in 1934, the infamous federal prison Alcatraz was shut down in 1963 (the year after Burt Lancaster played Alcatraz inmate Robert Stroud in the hit Hollywood movie "Birdman of Alcatraz"). But after 62 years, President Donald Trump is proposing reopening Alcatraz.

In a Sunday night, May 4, post on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote, "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. That’s the way it's supposed to be."

Trump continued, "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."

Trump's proposal is receiving plenty of reactions on X, formerly Twitter.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) believes that Trump is trolling his critics.

The congresswoman tweeted, "It is now a very popular national park and major tourist attraction. The President's proposal is not a serious one."

CNN's Kaitlin Collins posted, "Trump says he wants to reopen Alcatraz as a functioning prison for the most violent offenders. As the Bureau of Prisons notes on its website, it was closed in the 1960s because it was three times more expensive to operate than other prisons.

X user Richard Price wrote, "Anyone who doesn’t think that he's completely and utterly unhinged is either deluded or brainwashed. Trump orders reopening of notorious Alcatraz prison."

Another X user, Romy Lawrence, tweeted, "You've GOT to be effing kidding me.... Alcatraz? Seriously? Trump says he is directing Bureau of Prisons to reopen Alcatraz to house 'ruthless and violent offenders.'"

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