Nancy Pelosi doesn’t hold back about Trump’s plan for Alcatraz: “The President’s proposal is not a serious one”
Trump and Pelosi go head-to-head over the prospect of re-converting Alcatraz Island back into a prison, after more that six decades as a major tourist attraction
Clearly, Alphonse Capone, the 20th-century notorious mobster, is on the mind of President Donald Trump.
Not only has the president referenced the mafia leader in several interviews in recent weeks, but the White House also announced its intention to see Alcatraz restored as a functioning prison. Famously, the site where Capone was incarcerated is located on an island in San Francisco Bay, about 1.25 miles (6,600 feet) from the shore.
In 1963, the Alcatraz prison closed and was later converted into a national park. At the time, the government cited the high costs of maintaining the facility, including the need for daily shipments from the mainland. The prison operated between 1934 and 1963, and President Trump believes it should be reopened.
In a post on Truth Social, the president said that in the past, harkening back to a time when the US was “a more serious Nation [...] we did not hesitate to lock up the most dangerous criminals, and keep them far away from anyone they could harm.”
It appears the network of supermax prisons is not enough.
The social media post informs the public that he has called on the Bureau of Prisons, the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, and the FBI “to reopen” Alcatraz, calling on the agencies to ‘enlarge’ the facility. The island spans about 22 acres, or roughly the size of 17 football fields.
Nancy Pelosi labeled the idea as unserious
Former Speaker of the House and San Francisco’s Congressional Representative, Nancy Pelosi, dismissed the idea quickly, labeling it as “not a serious idea. Pelosi and Trump have had a rocky relationship to say the least, and quickly after the president’s comments about the prison-turned-museum that could be turned back into a prison in her district, she took to social media.
Pelosi notes that Alcatraz has been closed for more than sixty years and is an important tourist destination for the city.
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