How Trump Could Send the Perfect Message on Alcatraz

It’s time to restore justice in America.

That’s what President Donald Trump essentially said on social media on Sunday when he announced that he’d be reopening Alcatraz prison, which has been closed for over half a century.

“REBUILD, AND OPEN ALCATRAZ!” Trump said on Truth Social Sunday. “Today, 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 finished his long Truth Social post by saying, “The reopening of ALCATRAZ will serve as a symbol of Law, Order, and JUSTICE. We will, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

I’m going to offer my own suggestion for Trump’s proposed reopening of the prison. I can’t quite claim originality here since it’s been suggested by more than a few people on X. Instead of just reopening the Alcatraz prison facility, built a giant Statue of Justice on the island.

Commission a literal symbol of justice for the whole world to see.

Alcatraz Island was purchased from San Francisco by the National Park Service in 1972, so the president has the authority to not just open a prison but put a new monument on there too.

If the East Coast has a Statue of Liberty, then it only makes sense for the West Coast to have a corresponding Statue of Justice to recognize that from sea to shining sea, we desire liberty and justice for all. It coincides perfectly with Trump’s message of there being a new golden age for America.

I’ve got nothing against the museum at Alcatraz but imagine how much more of an attraction the island would be if it had a grand statue to rival the Statue of Liberty.

However, San Francisco politicians like Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. are already whining about reopening the prison.

What is serious is the failure of San Francisco politicians like Pelosi to clean up their city. Building a glistening Statue of Justice could inspire San Francisco to turn from embarrassment to excitement.

This isn’t the first time a Statue of Justice has been proposed for Alcatraz. When the prison facility was closed in 1963, there was a serious public discussion of what to do with the island.

Fredric Fosshage, an ordinary citizen from West Bend, Wisconsin wrote a letter to the mayor’s office in 1965 with the suggestion to build the Statue of Justice monument. He wrote that a giant statue should be built “as a lasting tribute to the beauty of San Francisco, and to the laws of these United States.”

Fosshage gave several reasons for building the statue that I wholly agree with.

“If there is one word for which our whole way of life should represent—our government, our laws, our society, our progress in civilization—that word is justice,” he wrote. “Our constant search for justice and truth cannot be matched in the history of mankind.”

That’s right. Until recently, most Americans understood that.

Fosshage concluded that the “greatness, beauty, appeal, and magnetism” of such a statue would elevate the city of San Francisco.

It would do more than elevate San Francisco, which has found too many ways of lowering itself these days. The statue would be a powerful symbol of American commitment to justice at home and abroad in an uncertain world.

Instead of destroying our history or engaging in perpetual, self-loathing navel gazing we should be elevating the noble ways that we looked to the future in our past. America stands as a pillar of liberty and justice, so let’s have a physical representation of that standing strong and gazing out from the West Coast.

The timing for such a project couldn’t be more important.

We are coming out of a dark half decade in which the country was trapped in a malaise, when abolishing the police was taken as a serious policy idea by the party in power, and in which elite institutions soaked up taxpayer money while spitting on the cultural and political heritage of the United States.

We shouldn’t just look at the empty pedestals around the country and shrug. Go on offense. Declare boldly what America was and will be again.

A towering statue designed and built by an American artist or group of artists would send a message not just for our own time but for the decades and centuries ahead.

Trump already signed an executive order for “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” He’s made pro-American greatness symbolism a serious part of his second term agenda. So why not include a great building project to symbolize a return to justice in America, where our border laws are enforced, where violent criminals stay behind bars, and the legal system is no longer weaponized to target political foes?

A massive golden Statue of Justice standing watch at the heart of the Golden Gate is the perfect way to send the message that America is great … and just … again.

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