{"id":47502,"date":"2026-04-05T12:14:44","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T19:14:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=47502"},"modified":"2026-04-05T12:14:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T19:14:45","slug":"trump-asks-for-152-million-to-rebuild-alcatraz-and-reopen-it-as-a-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/04\/05\/trump-asks-for-152-million-to-rebuild-alcatraz-and-reopen-it-as-a-prison\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump asks for $152 million to rebuild Alcatraz and reopen it as a prison"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By\u00a0Alexei Koseff<\/a>, Staff Writer April 3, 2026 (SFChronicle.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gift Article<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

President Donald Trump\u2019s budget request has re-ignited talk of re-opening Alcatraz Island as a\u00a0prison.Anna Connors\/S.F. Chronicle<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 President Donald Trump is seeking $152 million to kick-start his plan to reopen Alcatraz as a federal prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The request to Congress was buried in the 2027 budget proposal<\/a> that Trump released on Friday. The document \u201caffirms the President\u2019s commitment to rebuild Alcatraz as a state-of-the-art secure prison facility\u201d and includes money to \u201ccover the first year of project costs,\u201d but provides no further details about how the $152 million would be used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The White House referred questions to the Office of Management and Budget, which shared a\u00a02025 social media post<\/a>\u00a0in which Trump called to reopen the former maximum security prison \u201cto house America\u2019s most ruthless and violent Offenders\u201d and \u201cserve as a symbol of Law, Order, and JUSTICE.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Alcatraz funding is a tiny item in Trump\u2019s overall budget plan, which also proposes a $500 billion boost to defense spending<\/a> while cutting domestic programs by 10%. Congress, still fighting over fully funding the government<\/a> in the current fiscal year, would have to approve those changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said in a statement that Trump\u2019s proposed budget would \u201cfurther ignite the American dream,\u201d but a spokesperson did not respond to a question about whether he supports rebuilding Alcatraz. Neither did a spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would almost certainly face fierce opposition from Democrats, including Rep. Nancy Pelosi, San Francisco\u2019s longtime member of Congress, who said in a statement that she would \u201cuse every parliamentary and budgetary tactic available to block this lunacy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRebuilding Alcatraz into a modern prison is a stupid notion that would be nothing more than a waste of taxpayer dollars and an insult to the intelligence of the American people,\u201d she said. \u201cAlcatraz is a historic museum that belongs to the public, and San Franciscans will not stand for Washington turning one of our most iconic landmarks into a political prop.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

The project\u2019s inclusion in the president\u2019s budget nevertheless confirms that Trump remains on board with a long shot venture that had appeared to fade from interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump first suggested reinstating Alcatraz<\/a>, which operated as a federal penitentiary from 1933 to 1963, last May \u2014 possibly after watching the 1979 Clint Eastwood film<\/a> \u201cEscape from Alcatraz.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then in July, Trump administration officials, including then-Attorney General Pam Bondi and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, visited San Francisco to tour the historic site<\/a>, which is a popular tourist attraction operated by the National Park Service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the president appeared to move on after that. Aside from suggesting in July that sharks would patrol the waters around Alcatraz, he never publicly discussing a formal plan for reopening the prison, which was\u00a0shuttered more than 60 years ago<\/a>\u00a0because it was so expensive to run and vulnerable to escape attempts by inmates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project faces major practical and legal challenges, including an estimated $2 billion price tag<\/a> to renovate the crumbling facilities on an island in San Francisco Bay and nearly universal opposition from local officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTrump\u2019s idiotic quest to sink $2 billion into ruining a globally popular tourist attraction is the epitome of waste, fraud, and abuse,\u201d state Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat who is running to succeed Pelosi, said in a statement. \u201cTrump\u2019s dementia continues to get the best of him. Making Alcatraz a prison again isn\u2019t a thing, and we\u2019re not going to let him turn Alcatraz into his newest gulag. Back off.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diana Crofts-Pelayo, a spokesperson for Gov. Gavin Newsom, the former San Francisco mayor, called the project \u201cstupid and a waste of taxpayer money\u201d in a statement. San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie dismissed it last year as \u201cnot a serious proposal,\u201d though he did not comment Friday about the proposed funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

April 3, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Alexei Koseff<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Staff writer<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alexei Koseff is the Washington, D.C., correspondent for the San Francisco Chronicle, chronicling President Donald Trump\u2019s policies targeting California and the tension between the state and the federal government, as well as how powerful Bay Area figures are shaping \u2014 or thwarting \u2014 solutions in Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is rejoining the Chronicle from CalMatters, where he covered Gov. Gavin Newsom and state government. Previously, he served as a Capitol reporter for the Chronicle and spent five years in the Capitol bureau of the Sacramento Bee. Alexei is a Bay Area native and attended Stanford University. He speaks fluent Spanish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Alexei Koseff, Staff Writer April 3, 2026 (SFChronicle.com) Gift Article President Donald Trump\u2019s budget request has re-ignited talk of re-opening Alcatraz Island as a\u00a0prison.Anna Connors\/S.F. Chronicle WASHINGTON \u2014 President Donald Trump is seeking $152 million to kick-start his plan to reopen Alcatraz as a federal prison. The request to Congress was buried… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47502"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47502"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47504,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47502\/revisions\/47504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}