Imagine going back in time 10 years or more and explaining to someone that second-term President Donald Trump was visiting somewhere called “Alligator Alcatraz” — a hastily built mass deportation facility.
Then imagine trying to explain some of the things he and his traveling companion, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, discussed with members of the press during the trip.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis joined Trump and Noem for a tour of the migrant detention center, built in just eight days at a disused airstrip in the Florida Everglades, as the president looks to ramp up deportations of people in the U.S. illegally.
With his signature domestic policy bill making its way through the Senate back on Capitol Hill, and the reemergence of his feud with former DOGE leader Elon Musk simmering in the background, the president had plenty to say to the pool reporters accompanying him on the trip.
Here are some of the wilder moments.
Alligator cops (and crocodiles and sharks?)
Trump seems particularly taken with the idea of using wildlife and natural barriers to keep detainees from escaping. Asked Tuesday if the new detention center was the model going forward, the president responded: “It can be. You don't always have land so beautiful and so secure. We have a lot of bodyguards and a lot of cops in the form of alligators... I wouldn't want to run through the Everglades for long.”
He went further when reminded that in 2018, he suggested putting alligators in the Rio Grande to prevent migrants from crossing into Texas. Asked if today was a dream come true for him, the president said: “Well, I was thinking about that. It was meant more as a joke, but the more I thought of it, the more I liked it.”
He added: “And they were serious. They were actually crocodiles. They were crocodiles from Africa. They are a step beyond.”
Q: In 2018, you suggested putting alligators in the Rio Grade to prevent crossings in Texas. Is this a dream come true for you, sir?
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 1, 2025
TRUMP: Well, I was thinking about that. It was meant more as a joke, but the more I thought of it, the more I liked it. pic.twitter.com/fwSMWLXukd
In addition, on the flight home, Trump restated on Truth Social his desire to reopen the original “foreboding” Alcatraz federal prison in San Francisco Bay as a detention center, noting its island location and claiming it is “surrounded by sharks.”
Arresting NYC mayoral candidate Mamdani and Biden DHS chief Mayorkas
During a press conference after touring the site, Trump said he was open to arresting both presumptive Democratic New York City mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani and Joe Biden’s Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Concerning Democratic socialist Mamdani, Trump was asked what he would do if he won his election and followed through on a promise to defy raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the city that would aid in Trump’s mass deportations program.
“Well, then we’ll have to arrest him,” Trump said bluntly.
Trump threatens to arrest Zohran Mamdani
— Acyn (@Acyn) July 1, 2025
Question: He said that he will defy I.C.E. And not allow them to arrest criminal aliens in New York City.
Trump: Well then we will have to arrest him… a lot of people are saying he is here illegally. We’re going to look at everything pic.twitter.com/nLExaFgDFf
For Mayorkas, he said that he is open to his arrest for his handling of the migrant crisis at the southern border during President Joe Biden’s administration. The president was also interested that Biden had not issued a pardon to Mayorkas.
“Well, I’d take a look at that one because what he did is it’s beyond incompetence. Something had to be done. Now, with that being said, he took orders from other people, and he was really doing the orders,” Trump said.
“And you could say he was very loyal to them because it must have been very hard for him to stand up and sit up and, you know, talk about what he allowed to happen to this country and be serious about it. So he was given orders. If he wasn’t given a pardon, I could see looking at that.”
‘Son of a bitch’ Biden
Speaking of the former president, during the tour of the detention facility, in a room with bunk beds behind wire-fenced cages, Trump joked that Biden had wanted to lock him away, too.
“Hey, Biden wanted me in here,” the president quipped as Noem and DeSantis laughed.
He then added under his breath: “That son of a bitch.”
.@POTUS: "Biden wanted me in here ... Didn't work out that way." 🤣 pic.twitter.com/pP76ik1huq
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 1, 2025
A ‘system’ of detention camps and National Guard immigration judges
Noem was especially pleased with the rapid work of the DeSantis administration in building a detention camp of this scale at such speed.
“This facility is exactly what I want every single governor in the country to consider doing with us,” she told reporters during the on-site press conference.
Trump on DeSantis's new detention camp for migrants: "We'd like to see them in many states. And at some point they might morph into a system." pic.twitter.com/fCCBd6B6Xi
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 1, 2025
Trump went further, darkly saying: “We'd like to see them in many states. And at some point, they might morph into a system.”
A system of detention camps. Let that sink in.
At one point, the president said he approved of a plan by DeSantis to use National Guard soldiers as immigration judges.
“He didn’t even have to ask me. He has my approval,” Trump said.
DeSantis is attempting to deputize Florida National Guard Judge Advocate General Corps officers to serve as immigration judges, aiming to expedite deportations.
Deporting U.S. citizens
Trump also floated the idea of deporting criminal U.S. citizens.
The president stated at the press conference that not only had criminals entered the country under the previous administration, but that the problem extended beyond that and was homegrown.
He said: “We also have a lot of bad people that have been here for a long time ... many of them were born in our country. I think we ought to get them the hell out of here, too, if you want to know the truth. So maybe they'll be the next job that we work on.”
And finally, did Noem find Trump’s Hannibal Lecter?
Anyone who followed the 2024 election would be familiar with Trump’s frequent riffs on fictional cannibal serial killer Hannibal Lecter.
To this day, it remains unclear why he began mentioning the role played by Anthony Hopkins in 1991’s Silence of the Lambs, but he frequently brought it up.
During the press conference, Noem told the following anecdote, which is yet to be fact-checked: “The other day, I was talking to some marshals that have been partnering with ICE. They said that they had detained a cannibal and put him on a plane to take him home, and while they had him in his seat, he started to eat himself, and they had to get him off and get him medical attention. These are the kind of deranged individuals that are on our streets in America that we're trying to target.”
