Trump orders iconic jail to be reopened

Idea slammed as absurd and unhinged

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ranger on the island in the 1970s after it became a tourist attraction, said it would be impossible to reopen the cellblock as it is "totally inoperable".

BY CHRISTOPHER BUCKTIN

DONALD Trump has declared that he will bring Alcatraz back into service as a working jail.

The directive, which came as the White House posted an Al-generated image of the US President as if he were a character from the Star Wars films, has been dismissed as absurd.

Alcatraz, on a small island about a mile offshore from San Francisco in California, is now a museum and hugely popular tourist attraction. It closed as a prison 62 years ago.

In a post on his Truth Social site, Trump wrote: "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 hesi-tate 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.