Donald Trump on Tuesday explained his surprise decision to resurrect Alcatraz, the infamous island prison off the coast of San Francisco. Far from a policy drafted in a committee room, Trump’s latest directive appears to be inspired by Hollywood more than Washington, with the US president insisting the abandoned fortress represents “something very strong, very powerful in terms of law and order.”
“Well, I guess I was supposed to be a movie maker,” Trump told reporters at the White House, appearing to link his plan to revive the notorious island penitentiary with a Hollywood-style vision of law and order. “It represents something very strong, very powerful, in terms of law and order.”
His remarks followed a surprise directive over the weekend in which he ordered the Bureau of Prisons, alongside the Justice Department, FBI and Homeland Security, to reopen a “substantially enlarged and rebuilt” Alcatraz to detain “America’s most ruthless and violent offenders.” The announcement, posted on Trump’s Truth Social account, caught officials and observers off guard and was widely mocked online.
Social media users were quick to note that the 1979 Clint Eastwood film *Escape from Alcatraz* had aired on television in South Florida, including West Palm Beach, where Trump had spent the evening at Mar-a-Lago. “Are we getting American policy from TV shows?” one user posted on X.
Asked whether he had drawn inspiration from the movie, Trump appeared to nod to the connection. “Alcatraz is, I would say, the ultimate, right? Alcatraz, Sing Sing and Alcatraz, the movies,” he said, before describing the prison as “both horrible and beautiful and strong and miserable, weak. It’s got a lot of qualities that are interesting.”
The former prison, perched on a remote island off San Francisco, housed some of America’s most infamous criminals, including Al Capone and George “Machine Gun” Kelly, before closing in 1963 due to crumbling infrastructure and high costs. Since then, it has become a major tourist attraction under the National Park Service, drawing more than a million visitors annually.
Despite Trump’s romanticised claims that “nobody ever escaped” and one inmate was found dead from “a lot of shark bites,” the Bureau of Prisons clarifies that five escapees were never found and are presumed drowned. The agency also notes there are no “man-eating” sharks in San Francisco Bay.
Still, Trump’s new prisons director, William Marshall, said an immediate assessment was underway: “The Bureau of Prisons will vigorously pursue all avenues to support and implement the President’s agenda.”
Critics have dismissed the plan as unrealistic. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose district includes Alcatraz, wrote, “The President’s proposal is not a serious one.” Others questioned spending billions on a high-security prison while existing facilities are being closed due to similar infrastructure challenges.
But for Trump, the symbolism of Alcatraz still looms large. “It just represented something strong having to do with law and order,” he said. “We need law and order in this country.”