President Trump has, in fact, allocated $152 million in taxpayer money in his proposed budget to fund the first year of "project expenses" for his asinine, entirely impractical, and likely-to-be-abandoned plan to reopen Alcatraz as a prison, because he thinks it's a neat idea.

President Trump released his 2027 budget proposal today, which is more a wishlist and a political document than it is any actual, executable sort of budget. But in it he includes $152 million, as the Associated Press reports, for his project to renovate and reestablish Alcatraz as a prison — a project that by some estimates would cost around $2 billion, and would cost more in annual upkeep than it would be worth, which is largely why it was decommissioned for carceral use 60 years ago.

Trump first floated the idea last May, musing on Truth Social one weekend that it would be terrific to reopen Alcatraz "to house America’s most ruthless and violent offenders," adding, "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."

A clever sleuth at the Hollywood Reporter quicly put together the fact that Trump was likely watching the Clint Eastwood movie Escape From Alcatraz on Sunday morning, May 4, as it was playing on the local Palm Beach PBS affiliate that day, when he shot off his tweet about reopening the prison.

But very quickly it was made to look like serious business, with now-fired Attorney General Pam Bondi flying to San Francisco in July to tour Alcatraz, likely as a distraction from the Epstein Files uproar that was just beginning at that time.

State Senator Scott Wiener, who is also running for Congress, quickly denounced Trump's suggestion as "absurd on its face," pointing out first that Alcatraz is now a very lucrative tourist attaction that "generates significant revenue for the federal government and supports many jobs," and turning it into a "domestic gulag" would be nothing more than a boondoggle and waste of money.

After the release of Trump's budget proposal today, with the Alcatraz line item, Wiener reiterated that saying in a tweet, "Last summer, when Trump first floated his deranged idea to destroy Alcatraz & turn it into a prison gulag, many dismissed the idea as the rantings of a lunatic. I cautioned at the time that Trump often acts on even his most unhinged musings. Just ask Iran, Venezuela, the White House east wing or the people of Minneapolis."

Wiener continues, "He’s now back, asking Congress for billions to waste on destroying a top tourist attraction to turn it back into a failed exorbitantly expensive prison.  We won’t let him get away with this idiocy."

Alcatraz closed in 1963, largely because it cost three times as much as all other federal prisons to operate because all supplies and staff had to come in and out by boat.

In reaction to Trump's plan last year, Mayor Daniel Lurie told local station KTVU, "This is not a serious proposal."

Previously: Trump Still Barreling Forward With Certifiably Insane Plan to Reopen Alcatraz as a Prison

Photo by Aldric Rivat