Can We Just Send Trump to Alcatraz Already?

A condensed overview of 15 hours of Fox News for the week ending 5/11/25

Last week on Fox News the network shifted its focus as quickly as its glorious leader came up with another incredibly stupid idea. While President Trump openly questioned if he should negate the U.S. Constitution on “Meet the Press” with Kristen Welker the folks at Fox News were more worked up about his plans to transform a crumbling national landmark into a state-of-the-art maximum security prison.

Since Trump seemed obsessed with resurrecting the notorious Alcatraz prison while being flippant about the due process rights of millions of Americans and noncitizens I couldn’t help but think that he might be the first longterm guest at the island ruin.

Laura Ingraham claimed she could translate Trump’s incoherent ramblings about negating due process for non-citizens in criminal and immigration courts.

Brian Kilmeade complained that too many people were using Medicaid, the entire cast of “The Five” suddenly became experts in the nation’s air traffic control system while White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller decided he was a structural engineer.

Bret Baier announced that President Trump appointed Jeanine Pirro as the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. The popular Fox News host disappeared from the network with no fanfare, no farewell, not even a brief goodbye.

Anyone exclusively watching Fox News last week might have missed out on updates in the Ukraine-Russia War, the conflict between Israel and Hamas as well as two extremely expensive Naval accidents that occurred under the watch of former Fox News host turned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Show I watched on Fox last week:

• Fox & Friends

• The Five

• The Ingraham Angle

Trump’s Thoughts on Due Process - Fox vs. PBS

On Monday Laura Ingraham reduced Trump’s problematic statements regarding due process to a sign of his renegade nature.

“Liberals to say that Donald Trump has no respect for norms, as they call them. And they think an exchange between President Trump and NBC's Kristen Welker confirms their point,”

She cut to a clip of Trump on “Meet the Press.” Welker asked him about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an undocumented immigrant who the U.S. government has admitted was deported due to an administrative error.

“You said in a recent interview, you could bring him back, but you won't. Are you defying the Supreme Court?” asked Welker.

“No. I'm relying on the attorney general of the United States. Pam Bondi is very capable, doing a great job because I'm not involved in the illegality or the illegality. I have lawyers to do that, and that's why I have a great DOJ . . .They're not viewing the decision the way you said it. They don't view it that way at all. They think it's a totally different decision,” said Trump.

The producers cut back to Ingraham.

“100%. Look, he's not a lawyer, but he has lawyers, and they believe they're following what the Supreme Court is directing. The legal team is working this through. Then Welker and everyone at NBC thought they had him. But when you listen to the clip, he says, no, he is not defying the court. But she doesn't accept that. She keeps interrupting and pushing for the answer. She wants that Trump is somehow trying to create a constitutional crisis.”

Ingraham made several assumptions about Trump’s motivations. Ingraham is not a journalist she’s a propagandist hellbent of promoting Trump at any cost.

She cannot read his mind or know his motivation for answering any question. It’s up to Trump to clarify what he meant, not Ingraham.

Fox personalities use this technique often. Whatever Trump says they will ‘explain’ sometimes completely changing what he said.

How PBS covered the same interview

PBS White House correspondent Laura Barrón-López included a speech Trump made earlier in the day where he doubled down on some of the statement he made on “Meet the Press.”

“Since of at an event today announcing Washington, D.C. as the host city for the 2027 NFL draft. President Trump again doubted the need for due process under the Constitution,” said Barrón-López.

A clip of Trump from the White House event appeared on the screen.

“It's a very difficult thing with the courts because the courts have all of a sudden, out of nowhere they said, maybe you have to have trials. Trials. Then to have five million trials doesn't work, doesn't work. Well, you wouldn't have a country left,” said Trump.

Producers then cut to a clip from “Meet the Press.”

“On Sunday, in an interview on Meet the Press with Kristen Welker, the president questioned whether he had to uphold the Constitution,” said Barrón-López.

“Your secretary of state says everyone who's here, citizens and non-citizens deserve due process. Do you agree? Mr. President?” asked Welker.

“I don't know. I'm not I'm not a lawyer. I don't know,” said Trump.

“Well the Fifth Amendment,” said Welker.

“I don't know. It seems, it seems, it might say that. But if you're talking about that, then we'd have to have a million or two million or three million trials,” said Trump.

“But even given those numbers that you're talking about, don't you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States?” asked Welker.

“I don't know. I have to respond by saying, again, I have brilliant lawyers that work for me, and they are going to obviously follow what the Supreme Court's,” said Trump.

The president’s words speak for themselves. He appears to think that the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution is negated due to large number of migrants who would need due process.

There’s nothing in the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution that says anything about abandoning due process for citizens or non-citizens because it would cause an inconvenience for the government.

The Fifth Amendment also does not stipulate that only citizens are allowed due process rights. It starts with the phrase ‘no person.’ The word citizen does not appear in the Fifth Amendment.

The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Trump Wants to Reopen Alcatraz as a Maximum Security Prison - The Naysayers

On Monday on “Fox & Friends,” the news broke that President Trump declared that he wanted to re-open a prison on Alcatraz Island outside of San Francisco, California.

The notorious prison on the island was shuttered in 1963 partly due to exceedingly high operation costs.

The site has been transformed to a national park and is a popular tourist attraction. A few fun facts Trump could have easily looked up before he came up with this harebrained idea:

• The Alcatraz National Park site is located on a small island 1.25 miles offshore from San Francisco, California.

• Roughly 1.6 million visitors view the National Park every year.

• The historic landmark generates $60 million in annual revenue.

• The maximum amount of prisoners at the facility was only 363. The prison never operated at near its capacity.

• It was up to three times more expensive to house an inmate at Alcatraz than any other federal prison due to logistical problems.

• Most of the buildings were constructed in 1934 during the Great Depression.

• Some buildings do not have roofs, the walls of the former prison are held together with wire mesh to protect visitors from fallen debris.

• All water for human consumption and indoor plumbing has to be shipped to the island along with all other supplies.

• All sewage and trash has to be physically removed from the site at great expense.

Lawrence Jones had his doubts about Trump’s plans for the Alcatraz site.

“I feel that way about the Alcatraz. Him talking about reopening Alcatraz. Obviously, you can't reopen. There's some museum and all that,” said Jones.

Later in the same program Brian Kilmeade spoke to Fox News legal expert Gregg Jarrett about Trump’s plans for the site.

“Thanks Gregg, you've been to Alcatraz. How close is it to reopening? Do they still have the keys?” asked Kilmeade.

“Yeah, they got the keys. You don't really need keys anymore, though. You know, it's a provocative idea, Brian. Which may be why Trump is proposing it. So, the sound you hear are all the liberal heads exploding at the same time. So, this can be done, but it has to be rebuilt almost entirely. It's so outdated and crumbling. And here's the important part. It has landmark status. So, there would be an avalanche of lawsuits that would probably tie it up for years.” said Jarrett.

Later on, “The Five,” Dana Perino expressed doubt in the president’s plan.

“Reopening Alcatraz. I mean, I don't think it's going to happen in my lifetime, but, like, for example, you have to truck, or you have to ship everything in, and then you also have to, like, pull all of the sewage out because there's no way to do it,” said Perino.

Harold Ford Jr. had similar thoughts.

“If you've been to San Francisco and you've been there before, you know what you what you're dealing with here. There's no doubt that it has some security apparatus to it. That's interesting. But the reason they closed it, Dana touched on at the outset because of cost.”

The True Believers Were in Love with Trump’s Plans for Alcatraz

Only two folks on the network seemed enthusiastic about Trump’s outrageous plan for the national park. During the same segment on “The Five,” Judge Jeanine Pirro openly gushed at the thought of sending any prisoner to the notorious prison.

“When I was a judge I used to send prisoners to Sing Sing. If I could have sent them to Alcatraz, it would have been great because I came across some that absolutely deserved to be there. Donald Trump made it very clear it wasn't just for illegals. He talked about domestic terrorists, cartel bosses, serial killers, Americans. Let me tell you, I think the island location, the cold water, the shark infested waters, the isolation it represents, the fact that this is something that you don't want to go to as a defendant. You don't want to be sentenced there. I know it's going to cost money. I know, but it's a maximum-security location. You're not going to get visits by your family. They're not going to fly out there, get on a boat and go to Alcatraz. This is the worst thing you can do for a criminal defendant in the United States in terms of sentencing. And I think it's great.”

Later on, “The Ingraham Angle” White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller was also a huge proponent of re-opening the crumbling facility on Alacatraz.

“Well, sea travel and air travel have improved enormously since 1963, when that facility was shuttered. So, I have no concerns about the ability to get supplies, provisions and resources to and from the island,” said Miller.

Ingraham interrupted him.

“No, no Stephen the actual facility itself. Sorry, I don't mean to interrupt. The actual facility itself. The argument is it would have to be raised and completely rebuilt,” said Ingraham.

Miller appeared to position himself as some sort of expert in construction. He aggressively pushed back.

“Right. What I'm saying, when it was closed in 1963, that was the complaint. As for the facility itself, that's easily refurbished. So that's all nonsense. Look, Alcatraz was built at a time when this country was strong and it knew how to take care of villains and monsters. There are people in this country, as President Trump has said, who will do nothing with their lives but rape and murder. They cannot be rehabilitated. They cannot be saved. They cannot be coached into a better way of living. They are always going to hurt. They're always going to steal. They're always going to attack. And we need a place in this country where we can send people to visually demonstrate their total separation from society. The fact that they're not going to live among us and will never live among us. Additionally, this helps to disrupt transnational criminal organizations because it is harder to communicate with, it is harder to apply pressure to individuals who are inside of that prison because of its separation again from society.”

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics the United States is home to 376 maximum security federal prisons. Only one facility, United States Penitentiary, Administrative Maximum Facility (abbreviated as USP Florence ADMAX) in Florence, Colorado is designated as a supermax prison.

ADMAX Florence can house up to 335 to 358 inmates as part of a larger federal complex. The facility, nicknamed the Alcatraz of the Rockies, was built in 1994.

The facility is best known for housing inmates who have been deemed excessively dangerous, high-profile, or greater a security risk for typical maximum-security prisons.

Does the United States really need another prison? According to the non-profit, non-partisan Prison Policy Initiative:

The U.S. doesn’t have one criminal legal system; instead, we have thousands of federal, state, local, and tribal systems. Together, these systems hold nearly 2 million people in 1,566 state prisons, 98 federal prisons, 3,116 local jails, 1,277 juvenile correctional facilities, 133 immigration detention facilities, and 80 Indian country jails, as well as in military prisons, civil commitment centers, state psychiatric hospitals, and prisons in the U.S. territories — at a system-wide cost of at least $182 billion each year.

Everyone on The Five Was Suddenly an Expert on Air Traffic Control Systems

Over the past two weeks Newark Airport grappled with a series of outages and flight delays due to problems with its air traffic control system. On April 28, 2025 air traffic controllers (ATC) lost radar contact with planes for 90 seconds.

On Wednesday, the cast of “The Five” expressed their opinions about President’s Trump’s handling of the crisis. They mostly blamed former President Joe Biden and the Pete Buttigieg the last Secretary of Transportation.

Greg Gutfeld opened the segment.

“They are acting like Joe Biden didn't leave President Trump, a slate of crumbling airports and blaming him for the flightmare rocking Newark. . .But “Duffman” (Sean Duffy) is setting the record straight after Joe & company put fixing racist roads over updating our ancient air traffic control system.”

Jesse Watters also blamed Biden but said it was up to Trump to fix it.

“We know it's Biden's problem, but it's Trump's problem now, and this is like, I would treat this like the Pandemic Emergency Powers Defense Production Act. You just surge everybody there. It's a major airport. People don't care for Republican. Democrat. If they're five hours late to where they're going, they're going to blame Trump. So he needs to fix this.”

Dana Perino promoted a solution Republicans always seem to turn to for every problem.

“We have started privatizing space travel. I think that the private market could do a better job here. And you could try this with a few airports, like make them smaller ones and then grow it out. And you could figure out a way to have better retention for people with better salaries that were more competitive, that they're not capped out on a government salary. The East Coast is way oversaturated, but we also want to grow. We want an abundant country when we want to be able to travel for work and pleasure. And so, I think we have to rethink things and think big, which this administration can,” said Perino.

Nearly everyone at Fox News seems to forget that Trump was already president from 2017-2021. The problems with the nation’s air traffic control system go back decades.

The Guardian spoke to two experts who mentioned former President Ronald Regan’s decision to fire over 10,000 ATC during a labor dispute.

“The system’s staffing problems started when Ronald Reagan fired over 10,000 air traffic controllers,” after they went on strike in 1981, and those problems were worsened by his pushing the hatred of government and the dismantling of government. That’s what’s put us on the track to where we are today. There were budget cuts and tax cuts for the rich, and all that stopped us from doing the infrastructure projects and hiring and training that we needed to have a stable system,” said Sara Nelson, the president of the Association of Flight Attendants.

The Guardian also spoke to Joseph McCartin, a labor historian at Georgetown University who wrote a book about the 1981 air traffic controllers’ strike. He said,

“Ever since Reagan fired 11,345 striking controllers, “the system has been out of sync. The natural rhythm of the system broke down and we never fully recovered . . .we’ve improved over time, but the FAA still has grave difficulty staffing facilities.”

McCartin added: “[Elon Musk’s] DOGE has made things only worse. The entire system that federal employees operate under has been terribly destabilized. The FAA exists in a world where this entire project of the federal government is teetering.”

The Five Had ONE Opposing Voice Regarding the ATC System

Leslie Marshall. a liberal radio host who made a co-host appearance mentioned the DOGE cuts at the FAA

“When Pete Buttigieg was in charge of the Transportation Department, the secretary of transportation, he hired 2000 people DOGE has fired. Let's look at, you know, people say, when were they hired? Let's look at who they fire specifically. Maintenance mechanic, specifically aeronautical infrastructure specialist, specifically Dodge took people out who are specifically responsible for this type of coordination. They say what happened in Newark we are seeing an increase in problems. And there weren't these problems in the past four years. Since January, there have been five significant crashes. That hasn't been since 2009. So if everything happened in the last four years and nothing happened during the last four years, I'm not buying it,” said Marshall.

Brian Kilmeade Comes up with an Argument Against Medicaid

On Monday on “Fox & Friends,” Brian Kilmeade casually brought up an argument many Republican lawmakers might use to promote the idea of cuts to Medicaid.

“And then the Democrats always say he's going to get rid of your Medicaid. He's going to get rid of your Medicare, going to get rid of your Social Security, he said. I am not cutting those,” said Ainsley Earhardt.

“Right. A couple of things on Medicaid. So that's where the rubber hits the road, because, Barack Obama, Joe Biden expanded the people who are eligible for Medicaid by so many, that it's unaffordable, unsustainable. It's like the number one expenditure that the federal government has got to pay. It's supposed to be state aid paid the states. So, that's where the big battle is going to be,” said Kilmeade.

Brian Kilmeade Made the Most Fox News Quote of Fox News History

On Friday during a segment dedicated to Trump’s ‘Make America Healthy Again’ plans Brian Kilmeade hardly hid the fact that he had absolutely no integrity.

“Seventy percent of all pharmaceuticals sold to us. The chronic disease, the constant pill taking and the advertising on television. Look, that's a source of revenue for Fox. So, I'm not going to be that critical. But you also have to understand, and I understand that. But it's detrimental because you don't want people in there getting drugs because you saw them on television. And not many other countries allow this type of pharmaceutical ad sales.”

Stories Fox News Ignored

Every week I compare the hours I’ve watched on Fox News to five hours of the PBS News Hour. The following list are stories that PBS covered that Fox News did not. Source - PBS News Hour transcripts. This is list is slightly truncated due to space.

• Updates in the Ukraine-Russia war

  • In Ukraine, a drone attack on the city of Kharkiv injured at least two people and started multiple fires, this as a series of Ukrainian drone strikes on Russia forced all four airports near Moscow to temporarily suspend flights. In the meantime, more than 200 Ukrainian soldiers returned home in the latest prisoner swap between the two sides. Russia received the same number in an exchange mediated by the United Arab Emirates. (PBS News Hour)

  • Russian forces struck Ukraine last Wednesday, killing two people in the capital, Kyiv, while, in Washington, Vice President J.D. Vance told a conference that the U.S. is focused on brokering a long-term deal to end the war. Russia had rejected a 30-day cease-fire proposal from the U.S., which Ukraine agreed to. (PBS News Hour)

  • Ukraine and Russia accused each other of violating a three-day cease-fire. A Ukrainian official says Russia violated its own truce more than 700 times. In the Meantime, Putin welcomed Chinese leader Xi Jinping to the Kremlin. (PBS News Hour)

• Updates in the Israel-Hamas war

  • Hospital officials in the Gaza Strip say Israeli airstrikes killed at least 92 people, including women and children. One of the attacks hit a busy market in Gaza City. A PBS producer on the ground who provided footage said at least 23 people were killed there, including two journalists. (PBS News Hour)

  • The Israeli government voted to expand military operations in Gaza and could end with the reoccupation of the strip. Humanitarian officials warn that an Israeli plan to take over aid distribution in Gaza is unworkable, and more Palestinians will suffer. Israel has blocked all aid from entering for over two months now. (PBS News Hour)

• In Upstate New York, a corrections officer pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the fatal beating of a handcuffed inmate. Christopher Walrath was one of six guards charged with second-degree murder. Body cameras recorded the attack on Robert Brooks at the Marcy Correctional Facility in December. (PBS News Hour)

• Romania's prime minister announced his resignation after his party's candidate failed to advance in a redo of the country's presidential election. Hard-right nationalist George Simion far outpaced the other contenders, winning more than 40% of the last vote. He will face pro-Western reformist Nicusor Dan in a run-off later this month. Simion ran on a nationalist platform and is a vocal supporter of President Trump. (PBS News Hour)

• The Department of Education has terminated a federal grant program that helps pay for children's programming that airs on PBS. The Ready to Learn grant is administered by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which manages federal funding for NPR and PBS, including for the PBS News Hour. (PBS News Hour)

• In Berlin, Friedrich Merz was elected Germany's chancellor, but not without a surprising setback. For the first time in Germany's modern history, he lost the Parliament's initial vote and needed a second round to secure a majority.

  PBS produced a segment on the challenges that Merz inherits, from a politically divided Germany to an American president who's questioned the transatlantic alliance. (PBS News Hour)

• For the second time in two weeks, a U.S. Navy fighter jet from the USS Truman aircraft carrier fell overboard into the Red Sea. The ship has played a vital role in the U.S. air campaign against Houthi rebels in Yemen. The two pilots ejected safely and sustained only minor injuries. In April, another F/A-18 slipped off the deck of the Truman. Each jet costs more than $60 million. (PBS News Hour)

• The final race of the nation's 2024 election has finally been decided six months after voters went to the polls. In North Carolina, the Republican challenger for a state Supreme Court seat, Jefferson Griffin, conceded to the Democratic incumbent. That clears Allison Riggs to officially be reelected to an eight-year term as an associate justice. The Democrat, Riggs, won the election by just 734 votes out of more than five million cast. (PBS News Hour)

• Three former Memphis police officers were acquitted on state charges in the death of Tyre Nichols. The jury took about eight hours over two days to find Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, and Justin Smith not guilty on all charges. But they could still spend years in prison after being convicted of federal charges last year. Two other officers had already pleaded guilty in the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols, who fled a traffic stop in 2023. The 29-year-old's death sparked nationwide protests and renewed calls for police reforms in the U.S. (PBS News Hour)

• The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says it will no longer track the cost of major natural disasters. Those are weather events that cause at least $1 billion in damage. Scientists say such disasters are becoming more frequent due to climate change. (PBS News Hour)

• Billionaire Bill Gates announced a major change to his philanthropic Gates Foundation, a doubling of their giving to more than over $200 billion over the next 20 years, when the foundation will close its doors permanently in December of 2045. Gates and then-wife Melinda French Gates created the foundation 25 years ago and have given more than $100 billion since then, dramatically reshaping the global public health landscape. (PBS News Hour)

• The U.S. Postal Service has tapped a FedEx board member to lead the organization. The selection of David Steiner to be the nation's 76th postmaster general comes as President Trump and other officials have floated the idea of privatizing the service. Postal unions have protested that idea. The U.S. Postal Service continues to face serious financial headwinds. (PBS News Hour)

• Justice David Souter, who spent nearly 20 years on the Supreme Court, has died. Souter was a critical figure in several key battles in the court over issues like abortion and the 2000 presidential election. After ascending to the nation's highest court, Justice David Souter quickly turned from a great hope for conservatives into a judge who sided most frequently with the court's liberals. And because of it, he inspired a Republican rally cry, no more Souter. He was 85 years old. (PBS News Hour)

By the Numbers