Former President Donald Trump has ignited a political firestorm in California after proposing that Alcatraz Island — the famed former federal prison turned tourist destination — be restored and expanded to house America’s most dangerous inmates.
In a post shared to his Truth Social account on Sunday, Trump announced that he has asked the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, along with the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, to “rebuild and massively upgrade ALCATRAZ to hold the most violent and unrepentant offenders in the country.”
The proposal met immediate resistance from Democratic leaders in California, who dismissed the idea as political grandstanding. A spokesperson for Governor Gavin Newsom described the statement as a “divisive distraction,” while former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi criticized the plan as unserious. “There are real issues facing Californians,” she told reporters, “and this is not one of them.”
State Senator Scott Wiener, who represents San Francisco, was even more blunt. “Reopening Alcatraz as a prison would be like building a gulag in the middle of San Francisco Bay,” he said. “It’s absurd, costly, and performative.”
Alcatraz, located on a rugged island just over a mile offshore from San Francisco, served as a federal penitentiary from 1934 to 1963. It housed some of the most infamous criminals in American history, including mob boss Al Capone and gangster George “Machine Gun” Kelly. The prison was ultimately shuttered due to high operating costs and deteriorating infrastructure.
Since then, Alcatraz has become a thriving historical site and a centerpiece of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. It draws over one million tourists a year and contributes tens of millions of dollars to federal coffers annually. The National Park Service, which maintains the island, has not responded publicly to Trump’s remarks.
At San Francisco’s Pier 33 on Monday morning, visitors lined up for the ferry ride to Alcatraz amid talk of the island’s potential return to penitentiary status.
Rick Kautz, a visitor from Stockton, supported the idea. “It’s an isolated place — if you can swim from there and make it, good for you,” he said. “We’ve got serious crime problems, and we need places to put the worst of the worst.”
Others expressed skepticism. “Turning it back into a prison would mean losing a top tourist attraction that actually generates money,” said Kevin Ghallagher, a tourist from the United Kingdom. “It just seems backward.”
Beyond its prison-era notoriety, Alcatraz holds cultural and historical significance. In 1969, the island was occupied for nearly two years by Native American activists, drawing national attention to Indigenous rights and sparking what many historians now regard as a pivotal chapter in the civil rights movement.
Reopening the island as a high-security detention facility would not only be logistically challenging but also politically volatile. The original prison, according to federal reports, was nearly three times as expensive to operate as other federal institutions due to its remote location and maintenance requirements.
The proposal is the latest in a series of public statements from Trump aimed squarely at California, a state he often criticizes for its liberal leadership. In recent months, he has blamed Democratic policies for a range of crises — from wildfires in Los Angeles County to homelessness in San Francisco.
He has also targeted the Presidio Trust, which oversees one of the Bay Area’s most visited national parks. Trump previously pushed to cut federal funding for the trust, citing “mismanagement” — a move widely viewed as retaliation for the state’s criticism of his administration.
With his call to resurrect Alcatraz as a prison, Trump appears to be reviving his law-and-order rhetoric, positioning himself as tough on crime ahead of the 2026 midterms and the growing speculation around a 2028 political comeback.
As of now, no formal government action has been taken to study or advance Trump’s proposal. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons and the Justice Department have not issued any statements.
Still, political analysts say the proposal — whether symbolic or serious — has once again put Trump at the center of a cultural clash with California, a state he lost by a wide margin in both the 2016 and 2020 elections.
Whether or not Alcatraz’s cells are ever reoccupied, the island remains — for now — a place where visitors come to reflect on the past, not to relive it.