President Donald Trump can keep the country on its toes when it comes to his latest obsessions. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert may have figured out the president's sudden obsession with Alcatraz.
President Trump recently took to social media to share his vision to repair and restart Alcatraz, the now-abandoned island prison off the coast of San Francisco. The prison closed in 1963, but President Trump would like to send prisoners back to the island.
So why is President Trump thinking about Alcatraz in May 2025? According to Stephen Colbert, television explains everything.
Colbert's monologue pointed out Trump's Alcatraz announcement came the morning after the Clint Eastwood movie Escape From Alcatraz aired on a local Florida station. Trump was at Mar-a-Lago at the time, leading Colbert to conclude the president drew inspiration from the 1979 movie.
The Late Show host dug deeper and pulled a quote from President Trump's subsequent press conference. “Nobody ever escaped,” Trump said of Alcatraz. “One person almost got there but they, as you know the story, they found his clothing rather badly ripped up and it was a lot of shark bites, a lot of problems.”
“It’s not what happened,” Colbert said in response. “But it is in the movie Escape From Alcatraz, where shreds of the material of a raincoat are found floating in the bay.”
Colbert was left with only one conclusion: President Trump thinks movies are real life. The comedian then imagined what it would sound like if the president ever watched Shrek.
But Colbert shouldn't be all that surprised to hear President Trump get movies and reality mixed up. Trump's campaign speeches frequently referenced "the late, great Hannibal Lecter." Colbert and his fellow late-night TV hosts spent months mocking Trump by suggesting he thought the Silence of the Lambs villian was real.
The difference is that now, Trump is in power. So he can start making policies based on what he sees on TV the night before. Maybe Colbert and The Late Show should start checking the local listings to get a jump on what's coming next.