Trump’s fascination with Alcatraz is more symbolic than rooted in reality

President Donald Trump’s fascination with reopening Alcatraz, a dilapidated former state prison off the coast of San Francisco, seems motivated more by symbolism than necessity and could risk becoming the administration’s biggest boondoggle. 

Trump has enthusiastically floated the idea of restoring Alcatraz to its former glory multiple times, each time met with intense pushback over its impracticality and astronomical cost, estimated at $2 billion.

Known as “the Rock,” Alcatraz has been featured in many Hollywood movies and is held in the cultural consciousness as a tough place where the worst of the worst go. That makes it attractive to Trump, who sees himself as the “law and order” president. 

Indeed, for nearly three decades, the California prison housed some of the most notorious criminals in U.S. history, including gangster Al Capone...