US President Donald Trump is seeking $152m (£115m) to reopen the infamous Alcatraz prison as part of his proposed budget for the 2027 fiscal year.
Located near San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, the site, also known as The Rock, was once regarded as one of America’s most notorious prisons, but has served as a tourist attraction in recent years.
The budget request is seeking money “to rebuild Alcatraz as a state-of-the-art secure prison facility”, with funds covering the first year of costs.
The plan has been met with scepticism by a number of politicians in California, with questions raised about the final cost of the project and the challenges of running Alcatraz as an active prison.
The maximum security facility was closed in 1963. As a tourist site, it is currently run by the National Park Service.
One of many deeply frustrating things about Trump’s fire hose of terrible and frequently actively evil ideas is that not only do they come in such volumes that it’s overwhelming, but it’s also incredibly hard to tell if something is a brief fixation he will quickly move on from or something that is going to be a recurring issue to deal with.
Which is to say: Christ, he’s back on this one again?