Tourists visiting America’s most politically deranged, mismanaged, and filthy city like to spend sweet summer mornings strolling along Pier 39. Between reveling in San Francisco’s menagerie of smells, you can find them squinting out at the bay, searching for a small and silent island just fifteen minutes from the mainland by ferry: Alcatraz. For over sixty years, the infamous prison has stood empty of prisoners. Its doors may reopen to criminals during President Donald Trump’s second term.
The president has publicly indicated his interest in putting the prison to its original use. Put aside the logistics of rebuilding Alcatraz and consider what the desire to rebuild Alcatraz signals. Trump is, above all, a man with a keen sense of image. He’s yielded more iconic photographs than any president, or perhaps public figure, in recent memory. His turns of phrase are just-so, seamlessly absorbed into the (online) vernacular. Trump presents himself as a New York businessman. He is that – but he’s also something of an artist. His style is gaudy and bold and too brash for some. Alcatraz as a prison is a big, shiny badge of law and order affixed to one of the country’s bluest cities.
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