President Donald Trump made a surprise announcement that he intended to order the notorious Alcatraz prison to be rebuilt and reopened — and a former Republican strategist revealed the possible inspiration to his plan.
Trump posted Sunday evening on Truth Social that he would reopen and restore Alcatraz, which closed 60 years ago due to its crumbling infrastructure and high maintenance costs, as a "symbol of Law, Order, and JUSTICE."
Former GOP strategist Stuart Stevens told MSNBC's "Chris Jansing Reports" what might have prompted the announcement.
"Let me just point out that 'Escape from Alcatraz' is playing on television where Trump was this weekend," Stevens said, "and it's clearly what happened is, this guy saw 'Escape from Alcatraz' and then grabbed his phone and started tweeting, 'We ought to reopen Alcatraz.'"
The 1979 film directed and produced by Don Siegel and starring Clint Eastwood aired Saturday evening on PBS — the broadcaster that Trump has threatened to stop funding.
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"I mean, next time we're having a big issue with Ukraine, we should show 'Red Dawn,' with the Russians invading Colorado, and he'll probably give the Ukrainians nuclear weapons," said Stevens, an adviser to the anti-Trump Lincoln Project.
"You know, he treats the Constitution as sort of like a course that he's taken, and he can just skip certain classes and it doesn't matter. This is just nutty, and it's very, very dangerous, and you know, what really breaks my heart as a guy who helped elect a lot of these people who are up there. Why is it that no Republican senators are speaking out for the Constitution?"
"If there was one conservative idea, it was to protect the Constitution and to try to follow the Constitution, and that has just been thrown out the window," Stevens added. "The Republican Party has become this radical movement that has no coherent governing philosophy, and this is where you end up."
Watch the video below or at this link.