WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is searching for $152 million to kick-start his plan to reopen Alcatraz as a federal prison.
The request to Congress was buried within the 2027 budget proposal that Trump launched on Friday. The doc “affirms the President’s commitment to rebuild Alcatraz as a state-of-the-art secure prison facility” and contains cash to “cover the first year of project costs,” however gives no additional particulars about how the $152 million could be used.
The White House referred questions to the Office of Management and Budget, which shared a 2025 social media post by which Trump referred to as to reopen the previous most safety prison “to house America’s most ruthless and violent Offenders” and “serve as a symbol of Law, Order, and JUSTICE.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., stated in a assertion that Trump’s proposed funds would “further ignite the American dream,” however a spokesperson didn’t reply to a query about whether or not he helps rebuilding Alcatraz. Neither did a spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-N.D.
The venture’s inclusion within the president’s funds nonetheless confirms that Trump stays on board with a longshot enterprise that had appeared to fade from curiosity.
Then in July, Trump administration officers, together with then-Attorney General Pam Bondi and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, visited San Francisco to tour the historic site, which is a well-liked vacationer attraction operated by the National Park Service.
But the president appeared to transfer on after that. He instructed in July that sharks would patrol the waters round Alcatraz, however by no means publicly discussing a formal plan for reopening the prison, which was shuttered more than 60 years ago as a result of it was so costly to run and weak to escape makes an attempt by inmates.
The venture faces main sensible and authorized challenges, together with practically common opposition from native officers and an estimated $2 billion price tag to renovate the crumbling amenities on an island in San Francisco Bay.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, San Francisco’s longtime Democratic member of Congress, last year called it “the Trump Administration’s stupidest initiative yet,” and San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie dismissed it as “not a severe proposal.” Neither had anything new to offer Friday about the proposed funding.
“Trump’s idiotic quest to sink $2 billion into ruining a globally well-liked vacationer attraction is the epitome of waste, fraud, and abuse,” state Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat who is running to succeed Pelosi, said in a statement. “Trump’s dementia continues to get the most effective of him. Making Alcatraz a prison once more isn’t a factor, and we’re not going to let him flip Alcatraz into his latest gulag. Back off.”
