Trump Launches America’s Newest Concentration Camp, Complete With Tacky Merch (Techdirt)
Not content with just shipping people to a foreign concentration camp, Donald Trump now has his own, homegrown concentration camp in Florida. Trump, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis gleefully toured the hastily constructed concentration camp in the Florida Everglades, obnoxiously referred to as Alligator Alcatraz, in reference to (1) the infamous island prison in San Francisco that Trump is obsessed with and (2) the number of alligators (and crocodiles — the one place in the world that has both) that live in and around the Everglades.
There’s no way to look at what the US government is doing here and not think of it more as Auschwitz than Alcatraz. The parallels are unmistakable: hastily constructed camps in remote locations, euphemistic naming designed to obscure their true purpose, and—most tellingly—officials proudly touring the facilities while discussing plans to build “a system” of such camps nationwide.
In case you’re wondering how much it costs to go full Nazi, this one concentration camp will cost the American taxpayer nearly half a billion dollars a year. That money will come from FEMA, the organization that Trump (with an assist from former friend Elon Musk and DOGE) stripped budget from, meaning there will be even less to pay for actual emergencies, because all of that money will be used to jail people Trump doesn’t like in a swamp.
The Everglades facility will cost Florida some $450 million to run for one year, according to DHS, though much of that will be reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). While the airstrip is owned by Miami-Dade County, where officials have viewed the plan with skepticism, DeSantis is using his emergency authority to proceed on a tight schedule.
We are watching the latest march forward of American fascism in real time, complete with branded merchandise and gleeful photo ops. The US government is building concentration camps and selling t-shirts about it. This isn’t hyperbole. This isn’t partisan hysteria. This is what’s actually happening.
Every day you don’t call this what it is—fascism—you become complicit in normalizing it. Every time you treat this as just another political story, you help them make it routine. They’re counting on your exhaustion, your normalization, your willingness to look away.
The survivors of the Holocaust warned us this could happen again. They’re mostly gone now, but their warnings echo: it starts with camps, it starts with dehumanization, and it starts with good people doing nothing while evil wraps itself in flags and sells t-shirts.
Daily Beast MAGA Profits from Alligator Alcatraz with baby merch
MAGA Republicans and others have sought to capitalize on the notorious new “Alligator Alcatraz” detention center by selling merchandise such as baby onesies, T-shirts, and caps. As President Donald Trump toured the controversial Florida Everglades facility on Tuesday, the state’s GOP website and other online stores hawked a new line of fashion, enraging critics who view the centre as inhumane. One website was selling an “Alligator Alcatraz” retro baby onesie with a picture of a large alligator in a swamp for $26.89.
Christians cheering for Alligator Alcatraz is all I need to know about Christianity
— Blue Fairylicious Girl🧚 (@bluesnowflake.bsky.social) July 2, 2025 at 6:30 AM
The name "Alligator Alcatraz" reminds us that America is currently run by adults who are like malicious, giggling children using magnifying glasses to burn ants.
— Mrs. Betty Bowers (@mrsbettybowers.bsky.social) July 1, 2025 at 7:35 PM
It’s costing taxpayers $450/M annually & Alligator Alcatraz concentration camp is already flooding. Imagine a hurricane. People are going to die. There’s always enough money to hurt folks, but when it comes to public transit, low-income housing, schools, or public healthcare, “Sorry, we’re broke.”
— Christopher Webb (@cwebbonline.com) July 2, 2025 at 5:22 AM
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People going 'Don't say "Alligator Alcatraz".' People saying 'Because it's not a prison, it's a concentration camp.' What if there was a concentration camp with a name that also started with A and ended in Z? Why not say that?
— James Wallis (@jameswallis.bsky.social) July 2, 2025 at 6:10 AM
Incidentally, Worst of the Worst going there? Nope
The latest data shows that in fact, under pressure to meet quotas of 3,000 arrests a day, immigration officials have detained less than 6 percent of migrants known to have committed murders and at most 11 percent of those convicted of sexual assault, with more than two-thirds of detainees having no criminal background at all.
Miller nevertheless insisted that the majority of detainees at the Florida facility will likely be members of terrorist organizations, adding he believes the camp will offer a “superior” quality of care for detainees than most U.S. citizens enjoy in the nation’s jails.
