Trump Seems to Have Decided to Reopen Alcatraz Because of a Movie

[highplainsdem]

https://newrepublic.com/post/194824/where-trump-got-idea-reopen-alcatraz

President Trump may have gotten his half-brained idea to reopen and expand the infamous Alcatraz prison from a movie that aired on WLRN this past weekend.

-snip-

A Bluesky user provided some more details on this seemingly random announcement.

“I may have context for this! Last night WPBT in Palm Beach broadcast the 1979 Clint Eastwood film ‘Escape from Alcatraz,’” they wrote. Trump was in Palm Beach on the night in question.

Trump potentially making major policy decisions based on the last movie he watched is bleak but unsurprising. Alcatraz is a dilapidated full-time museum off the coast of San Francisco that closed in the 1960s because it was too expensive to operate and many of the buildings were falling apart. Getting it back to a full-time jail would be incredibly costly and labor intensive.

-snip-

That Bluesky thread starts here -

I may have context for this! Last night WPBT in Palm Beach broadcast the 1979 Clint Eastwood film "Escape from Alcatraz."

— Robert Andrew Powell (@robertandrewp.bsky.social) 2025-05-04T23:12:00.187Z

- and in the 4th message they corrected which station broadcast it, to the one named in the first paragraph of the article.

[Jim__]

1. That's about as good of a reason as he has for any of his other policies.

[JBTaurus83]

2. This

is just another thing that isnt't going to happen.

[underpants]

3. What happened to he and Musks big visit to Fort Knox?

[Aristus]

8. The squirrel saw a different, new shiny thing.

A different, hard to get into, concrete building.

[yellow dahlia]

4. He is SO small minded and SO predictable. I said that to Mr. Dahlia this morning,

but without the context.

When I saw the story on the news this morning, I flippantly speculated - he must have gotten the idea from a movie.

[RockRaven]

5. And his border policy was shaped by Sicario 2. He does this all the time.

I have said it several times and only refrain from saying it more often to avoid boring all of you: The Convicted Felon's understanding of how stuff works is largely based on TV and movies -- and NOT documentaries at that. The dumbfuck doesn't read, he just watches the boob tube.

[Initech]

6. His brain is totally gone.

And yet Biden was the out of touch old guy from that fucking debate.

[love_katz]

7. I think Biden got wrongly slammed for that debacle.

Agolf $hitler is a fire hose of gish gallop. It's an attack tactic.
I know Kamila managed to perform better against it, but I don't think Biden's mental state should have been judged as inadequate just because $hitler did what he does best. Kamila is a prosecutor and probably had more recent experiences in coping with that kind of attack. And the lack of any moderation by the network presenting that travesty of a "debate" was absolutely useless.
I do so hate the lame stream McGreedia.

[Initech]

9. Fuckface only won because he wouldn't shut the fuck up.

And he also won the debate against Kamala because he wouldn't shut the fuck up. That's how he gets anywhere - he's just the loudest jackass in the room regardless of whether he's right or wrong.

[love_katz]

11. Agree.

This is the same reason that no one ever succeeds in properly challenging him in an interview. He talks over people, interrupts, insults the interviewer and the person gives up out of fear of looking like an asshole and/or disrespecting the office of the POTUS. The problem is that $hitler is a bully and the only effective technique is to kick him solidly in the nads and then follow up with a knock out punch in the nose, the verbal equivalent at least. But no, decorum and all that bologna.

[Mountainguy]

10. If they had shown Coneheads

He'd be writing an EO that anyone accused of a crime had to narfle the garthok.