Tourists at the famed San Francisco attraction were surprised that President Trump floated the idea of making Alcatraz a prison once more.
On Monday morning, crowds of tourists strolled through Alcatraz Island, peering into the tiny, deteriorated prison cells and learning about infamous inmates and escape attempts. The tour itself was routine — a hallmark of any San Francisco visit — except for one surprising topic that dominated chatter: President Trump's declaration that he wants to reopen Alcatraz as a functioning federal prison.
Many visitors, including international travelers, had already heard about Trump's proposal through news alerts or breakfast headlines. Some speculated they could be among the last tourists to experience the island before it possibly closed again. Few, however, seemed to share the president’s enthusiasm.
“I thought it was a joke,” said Philipp Neumann, visiting from Germany. He described Alcatraz as mostly a ruin — a fair assessment given the crumbling walls, broken toilets, lack of basic utilities, and bird droppings coating much of the site. The buildings are in such poor shape that netting is used to prevent falling debris from hitting visitors.
Alcatraz has remained largely untouched since it closed as a prison 62 years ago. Deemed too expensive and deteriorated to maintain, it has since thrived more as a cultural icon than a correctional facility. Films like Birdman of Alcatraz, Escape from Alcatraz, and The Rock have helped cement its legacy in pop culture.
It seems Trump might have drawn inspiration from those films, particularly Escape from Alcatraz, when he announced on social media that he had ordered federal agencies to restore and reopen the island as a symbol of “Law, Order, and JUSTICE.” When questioned, he boasted about the island’s supposed inescapability — though his account of one failed escape involving shark attacks didn't match historical records.
Alcatraz's history includes a 19-month Native American occupation in the late 1960s, and in 1973, it reopened to the public as a park, museum, and bird sanctuary under the National Park Service. Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986, it now draws 1.4 million visitors annually.
Trump, however, dismissed the site as a “big hulk” of decay that nevertheless holds symbolic weight. Yet experts note that the cost and logistics of running a prison on an isolated island, combined with the site’s current state, make the idea impractical. The original prison was closed for those very reasons — high maintenance costs and deteriorating infrastructure — and held far fewer inmates than the modern federal system accommodates today.
Despite his administration moving forward with a feasibility assessment, most tourists and local officials were skeptical. San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie dismissed the idea as unserious, while Supervisor Rafael Mandelman called it “typically absurd.”
Even former Trump supporters like the LaPierre couple from the Netherlands expressed concern over the historical loss such a redevelopment would cause. British tourists Tony and Deb Vickery, who said their travels seemed to follow Trump's geopolitical obsessions, had a blunter assessment: “We think he’s mad,” said Ms. Vickery. “He’s lost his marbles.”
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