Trump: No money for kids’ cancer research, but cash for a monument to my ‘vanity’

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• Lauren Sforza | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

President Donald Trump has no problem funneling funds to rebuild a notorious prison while slashing funds for children’s cancer research.

Trump announced Sunday that he directed his administration to rebuild and reopen the notorious Alcatraz prison located off the coast of San Francisco that has been closed for more than 60 years. Many experts and pundits criticized Trump’s statement, saying that reopening Alcatraz would be too expensive and take too much time.

Democratic strategist Mike Nellis ripped Trump over the announcement, noting that his administration has attempted to cut funding for children’s cancer research. According to The Center for American Progress, the Department of Government Efficiency is responsible for cutting some grants for pediatric cancer research.

“America has no money to pay for cancer research for kids, but we’ve got tons of cash to rebuild Alcatraz for Trump’s vanity. Unbef-ckinglievable,” he wrote on social media platform X.

Other social media users claimed that Trump is using Alcatraz as a distraction from his other actions and gaffes, like saying in an interview over the weekend with NBC’s Kristin Welker that he is not sure whether he has to follow the Constitution as president.

Former MSNBC host Chuck Todd told journalists not to cover Trump’s comments on Alcatraz.

“Hardest thing for any journalist in Trump era is to figure out when to cover his social media musings as serious or not. Alcatraz is not serious, obviously, but the more someone tells him how dumb (and expensive) idea is, the more likely he might do it. Fwiw, this musing felt like a distraction tweet from his bad ‘I don’t know’ about following the Constitution answer,” Todd wrote on X.

U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who represents the district near San Francisco, also poured cold water on Trump’s idea.

“Alcatraz closed as a federal penitentiary more than sixty years ago. It is now a very popular national park and major tourist attraction. The President’s proposal is not a serious one,” she wrote on X.

In a post on his Truth Social site Sunday evening, Trump wrote that, “For too long, America has been plagued by vicious, violent, and repeat Criminal Offenders, the dregs of society, who will never contribute anything other than Misery and Suffering. When we were a more serious Nation, in times past, we did not hesitate to lock up the most dangerous criminals, and keep them far away from anyone they could harm. That’s the way it’s supposed to be.”

“That is why, today,” he said, “I am directing the Bureau of Prisons, together with the Department of Justice, FBI, and Homeland Security, to reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt ALCATRAZ, to house America’s most ruthless and violent Offenders.”

Trump’s directive to rebuild and reopen the long-shuttered penitentiary was the latest salvo in his effort to overhaul how and where federal prisoners and immigration detainees are locked up. But such a move would likely be an expensive and challenging proposition. The prison was closed in 1963 due to crumbling infrastructure and the high costs of repairing and supplying the island facility, because everything from fuel to food had to be brought by boat.

Bringing the facility up to modern-day standards would require massive investments at a time when the Bureau of Prisons has been shuttering prisons for similar infrastructure issues.

The prison — infamously inescapable due to the strong ocean currents and cold Pacific waters that surround it — was known as the “The Rock” and housed some of the nation’s most notorious criminals, including gangster Al Capone and George “Machine Gun” Kelly.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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