Trump’s record-setting budget includes funds for renovating and reopening Alcatraz

President Donald Trump hasn't forgotten about his dream to reopen the notorious Alcatraz prison on the island off the coast of San Francisco, California. In his new budget, he funds $132 million to “rebuild Alcatraz as a state-of-the-art secure prison facility."

Trump is being criticized for his wallet-busting $1.5 trillion 2027 budget for defense spending, which Stars and Stripes explained would be the largest military spending level in the modern era, Fox40 reported Friday.

Last May, Trump floated the idea on Truth Social, saying one Sunday evening, "REBUILD, AND OPEN ALCATRAZ! 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[.]"

The Hollywood Reporter noticed that at the same time Trump was posting, "WLRN — a PBS affiliate that services South Florida, including Palm Beach and Mar-a-Lago — aired a rerun of 'Escape From Alcatraz.'" In fact, it aired twice over the weekend.

The 1979 film starring Clint Eastwood was released more than 10 years after "The Rock" closed in 1963. It captured the most notorious prison breakout and was filmed on location. The men who staged the 1962 escape, and inspired the film, were never found.

While the defense budget typically funds the Department of Defense, it also funds projects from the Department of Energy, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice. Trump allocates $40.8 billion in discretionary DOJ spending and the $132 million for Alcatraz would come out of that.

Other unique funding demands from the president include $10 billion for "priority construction and beautification projects" in Washington D.C. that would "rehabilitate historic buildings and landscapes." It includes a whopping $605 million for the D.C. National Guard to continue picking up trash around the city. The District is 69 square miles. That would work out to about $8.77 million per square mile to pick up trash for all of 2027. Congress forced D.C. to cut its budget by $1 billion in a retroactive revision for the 2024 budget in the "Big, Beautiful Bill" passed in 2025. It also heavily slashed funding to Medicaid and Medicare and cut SNAP (food stamps) by $186 billion over 10 years.