WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is seeking $152 million to kick-start his plan to reopen Alcatraz as a federal prison.

The request to Congress was buried in the 2027 budget proposal that Trump released on Friday. The document “affirms the President’s commitment to rebuild Alcatraz as a state-of-the-art secure prison facility” and includes money to “cover the first year of project costs,” but provides no further details about how the $152 million would be used.

The White House referred questions to the Office of Management and Budget, which shared a 2025 social media post in which Trump called to reopen the former maximum security prison “to house America’s most ruthless and violent Offenders” and “serve as a symbol of Law, Order, and JUSTICE.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said in a statement that Trump’s proposed budget would “further ignite the American dream,” but a spokesperson did not respond to a question about whether he supports rebuilding Alcatraz. Neither did a spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-N.D.

The project’s inclusion in the president’s budget nevertheless confirms that Trump remains on board with a long shot venture that had appeared to fade from interest.

Then in July, Trump administration officials, including then-Attorney General Pam Bondi and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, visited San Francisco to tour the historic site, which is a popular tourist attraction operated by the National Park Service.

But the president appeared to move on after that. He suggested in July that sharks would patrol the waters around Alcatraz, but never publicly discussing a formal plan for reopening the prison, which was shuttered more than 60 years ago because it was so expensive to run and vulnerable to escape attempts by inmates.

The project faces major practical and legal challenges, including nearly universal opposition from local officials and an estimated $2 billion price tag to renovate the crumbling facilities on an island in San Francisco Bay.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, San Francisco’s longtime Democratic member of Congress, last year called it “the Trump Administration’s stupidest initiative yet,” and San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie dismissed it as “not a serious proposal.” Neither had anything new to offer Friday about the proposed funding.

“Trump’s idiotic quest to sink $2 billion into ruining a globally popular tourist attraction is the epitome of waste, fraud, and abuse,” state Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat who is running to succeed Pelosi, said in a statement. “Trump’s dementia continues to get the best of him. Making Alcatraz a prison again isn’t a thing, and we’re not going to let him turn Alcatraz into his newest gulag. Back off.”