Donald Trump has announced that he’s reopening Alcatraz as a federal prison for the worst of the worst in America. I couldn’t be more delighted, because it’s a wonderful idea at both practical and symbolic levels.

Trump made the announcement on Truth Social:

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. 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. We will no longer be held hostage to criminals, thugs, and Judges that are afraid to do their job and allow us to remove criminals, who came into our Country illegally. The reopening of ALCATRAZ will serve as a symbol of Law, Order, and JUSTICE. We will, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

It’s to be hoped that many of the new residents will be the same Tren de Aragua and MS-13 terrorists that the leftists insist remain on American soil.

The media grimly reported the news, although they hastened to add that it won’t be easy to turn the old site into a modern prison. AP is representative of this approach to reporting:

Trump says he’s going to reopen Alcatraz prison. Doing so would be difficult and costly

President Donald Trump says he is directing his government to reopen and expand Alcatraz, the notorious former prison on a hard-to-reach California island off San Francisco that has been closed for more than 60 years.

[snip]

Trump’s directive to rebuild and reopen the long-shuttered penitentiary was the latest salvo in his effort to overhaul how and where federal prisoners and immigration detainees are locked up. But such a move would likely be an expensive and challenging proposition. The prison was closed in 1963 due to crumbling infrastructure and the high costs of repairing and supplying the island facility, because everything from fuel to food had to be brought by boat.

Bringing the facility up to modern-day standards would require massive investments at a time when the Bureau of Prisons has been shuttering prisons for similar infrastructure issues.

There are a few points to be made.

First, as a practical matter, if anyone can do this on time and under cost, Trump is the man. He is still remembered for returning New York City’s Wollman Rink to operation after the city had fiddled around for six years and spent over $13 million to get nowhere at all. The city estimated that another $2-3 million and at least one year would be required to finish the project. It’s unlikely the city would have met either of these metrics.

Trump offered to renovate the site at his own expense and to have it done in six months. In fact, he completed it in four months, at a cost of around $750,000 (including city funding). The city “thanked” Trump over two decades later by canceling the Trump Organization’s concession contracts to punish him for the imaginary January 6 “insurrection.”

Donald Trump knows how to manage construction projects, and he knows people who can be his point men on the project when he’s not able to keep his hand on the tiller.

Second, and this is the more wonderful point, is that the updated, high-level prison, one presumably rich in criminal illegal alien inmates, will be smack dab in the heart of one of the most leftist neighborhoods in America. Every time the San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland, and Marin County leftists, all of whom despise Trump, look into the beautiful San Francisco Bay, they will be visually assaulted by something they made possible when they closed the door to El Salvador’s prisons.

Third, even outside of the Bay Area’s suffering, reopening Alcatraz is a symbolic blow to the left. That’s because, aside from the mythology of Alcatraz being a prison from which escape was impossible, and the one-time home of famous criminals, including a syphilis-demented Al Capone, it’s also the site of a famous leftist-inspired “occupation” (hyperlinks omitted):

The Occupation of Alcatraz (November 20, 1969 – June 11, 1971) was a 19-month long occupation by 89 American Indians and their supporters of Alcatraz Island and its prison complex, classified as abandoned surplus federal land. The occupation was led by Richard Oakes, LaNada Means, and others, while John Trudell served as spokesman. The group lived on the island together until the occupation was forcibly ended by the U.S. government.

The protest group chose the name Indians of All Tribes (IAT) for themselves. IAT claimed that, under the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868) between the U.S. and the Lakota tribe, all retired, abandoned, or out-of-use federal land was to be returned to the Indigenous peoples who once occupied it. As Alcatraz penitentiary had been closed on March 21, 1963, and the island had been declared surplus federal property in 1964, a number of Red Power activists felt that the island qualified for a reclamation by Indians.

I can’t comment on the legality of the protesters’ understanding of the Treaty of Fort Laramie because I haven’t read (and won’t read) that treaty. I just know, remembering the event in real time, that it got huge amounts of support from the left, including the Black Panthers, who made it one of their cause célèbres. Eventually, hippies and drug addicts moved in on the movement, ending it completely. In other words, whatever legitimacy the protesters’ claim had, it was a matter for the courts, not a leftist-inspired occupation that collapsed under the weight of leftist culture.

For all these reasons, I couldn’t be more delighted with Trump’s plan, which really illustrates his and his team’s ability to think out of the box, use available resources wisely, and make leftists crazy.

Image: Truth Social screen grab.