Yet again, after all these years, the media is compelled to jump and respond to Trump's every mis-capitalized tweet from the toilet, and this time it was a ridiculous idea floated on Sunday to turn Alcatraz back into a federal prison.

Trump clearly gets his rocks off by taunting liberals and denigrating San Francisco in particular, and that was probably all he was doing with a Sunday post on Truth Social in which he suggested returning Alcatraz to its original purpose, as a prison for "the most dangerous criminals."

Why Alcatraz? Because he and other people know it from the movies, and he's apparently decided it's symbolic of how we don't lock up enough people anymore. This is curious both because the federal prison population has been growing since 2022, after a pandemic dip, and because Trump himself signed a bill into law in 2018 aimed at shrinking the prison population, the First Step Act.

"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," Trump wrote in his Truth Social post on Sunday. "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. No longer will we tolerate these Serial Offenders who spread filth, bloodshed, and mayhem on our streets."

He continued, saying he was 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."

When we were "a more serious nation," we didn't elect clownish despots like him, but I digress.

A spokesperson for Governor Gavin Newsom's office on Sunday responded saying, "Looks like it's distraction day again in Washington, D.C."

House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi said in her own statement, "Alcatraz closed as a federal penitentiary more than sixty years ago. It is now a very popular national park and major tourist attraction. The President’s proposal is not a serious one."

And state Senator Scott Wiener offered a lengthier response, calling the idea of reopening Alcatraz "absurd on its face."

"This major tourist attraction generates significant revenue for the federal government and supports many jobs," Wiener said in a statement. "But apart from Trump’s continuing unhinged behavior, this action is part of Trump’s ongoing crusade to sabotage the rule of law… If Trump is serious about doing this, it’s just one more step in his dismantling of democracy — a domestic gulag right in the middle of San Francisco Bay."

This is another example of a Trump whim that becomes a tweet that becomes a national story in a matter of minutes, and will likely amount to nothing. And, obviously, the cost of transforming what is now a virtual ruin and a museum into a working prison again would be massive.

Not to mention the reason that Alcatraz closed as a prison in 1963 was that it was three times more expensive to operate than other federal prisons, because everything needed to be brought in by boat — as CNN White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins noted on Sunday.

The Chronicle ran out and grabbed some photos of tourists returning from trips to Alcatraz on Sunday, asking them their opinions of Trump's proposal, and so did KTVU. Unsurprisingly, no one thought it was a good idea, and they want it to continue to be a tourist attraction.

Alcatraz historian John Martini tells the Chronicle that the entire cellblock would likely need to be demolished and rebuilt to house prisoners again, and that it is currently "totally inoperable" with no water or sewage, and electricity only in some parts. "It was always an extremely expensive place to run," Martini adds.

Will we need to hear about this much more beyond this week? Hopefully not.

Photo by Marcus Lauff