Donald Trump took off on a winding rant about his summer vacation plans Tuesday when asked a crucial question about “Alligator Alcatraz.”

During a press conference at the ICE facility in the middle of the Florida Everglades, the president was asked whether there was an “expected time frame” that detainees would be kept at the hastily constructed immigrant detention center, and whether it would depend on the immigration judges staffed there.

“When you say, uh, what was the first part of your question?” Trump asked, clearly confused.

“Is there a specific time frame you expect the detainees to spend here—days, weeks, months?” the reporter repeated.

“In Florida?” Trump asked.

“Yes, here at Alligator Alcatraz,” the reporter responded, but the president had already jumped into a response about how much he loves the Sunshine State.

“I’m gonna spend a lot of—this is my home state. I love it. I love your government. I love all the people around—these are all friends of mine. They know me very well. I mean I’m not surprised that they do so well. They’re great people,” Trump said, singling out Governor Ron DeSantis, who previously campaigned against Trump but now acts as a cheerleader for his new wetland-themed concentration camp.

“I feel very comfortable in the state—I’ll spend a lot of time here,” Trump continued. He said that he would continue to visit despite his current digs at the White House, which had allowed him to “fix up” the “little Oval Office.”

“But I’ll spend as much time as I can here. You know my vacation is generally here ’cause it’s convenient. I live in Palm Beach. That’s my home. And I have a very nice little place—nice little cottage to stay at, right? But we have a lot of fun,” Trump continued, joking about his massive estate at the Mar-a-Lago resort.

REPORTER: Is there an expected timeframe that detainees will stay here? Days, weeks, month? TRUMP: I'm gonna spend a lot. This is my home state. I love it. I'll spend a lot of time here.

[image or embed]

“Alligator Alcatraz,” a complex of tents built on a defunct Miami-Dade airstrip adjacent to the Big Cypress National Preserve, is expected to open later this month with 5,000 beds, eventually increasing to 10,000. How long immigrant detainees would be expected to stay there remains unclear.

The detention center will cost the state $450 million per year to run, which will be reimbursed through FEMA. Last week, environmental groups filed a lawsuit against Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, the head of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, and Miami-Dade County to block construction until a stringent environmental review of the project had taken place.

Donald Trump threatened to arrest New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani Tuesday.

Speaking with reporters during a press conference at “Alligator Alcatraz” regarding the newly passed “big, beautiful bill,” the president said that he would cuff Mamdani if the New York politico followed through on defying ICE.

“Well then we’ll have to arrest him,” Trump said. “Look, we don’t need a Communist in this country. But if we have one, I’m going to be watching over him very carefully on behalf of the nation. We send him money, we send him all the things he needs to run a government.”

Q: You message to communist Zohran Mamdani? TRUMP: Well then, we'll have to arrest him

[image or embed]

He then accused the Ugandan-born immigrant of being in the nation “illegally.”

“A lot of people are saying he’s here illegally. We’re going to look at everything,” Trump noted.

The 33-year-old democratic socialist has been repeatedly accused by conservatives of being a Communist, a badge that he has roundly rejected. Politifact, an independent fact-checking organization, said that the Queens lawmaker’s platform for free buses, subsidized day care, protected rent control, and city-owned grocery stores was not akin to communism, a system in which the government seizes and retains complete and total control over private property and industry. Instead, Politifact decried the cheap smear as a “red scare tactic that has existed in U.S. politics for decades.”

Mamdani clinched last week’s election with 56 percent of the vote once all the ranked-choice votes were tabulated and released Tuesday. He eclipsed former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo by double digits, beating out the establishment Democrat by 12 points.

But the threat of arrest is not the only backlash that Mamdani’s candidacy has received from the White House. Instead, in an incredible moralistic reversal for a conservative party that claims to advocate for states’ rights, Trump has further intervened in New York’s local elections by promising to cut off federal funding for the Big Apple if the citywide favorite wins Gracie Mansion in November.

The richest man in the world is processing the consequences of his own actions live on X.

Elon Musk, in the midst of condemning Trump’s budget bill, expressed regret Tuesday over his decision to wear sunglasses inside while waving a huge chain saw around with Argentinian President Javier Milei at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February.

“Maybe you shouldn’t have taken the chainsaw on stage and acted a fool,” an X user told Musk as he complained about Republicans’ budget increasing the debt ceiling. “Maybe you could have gotten more done if you weren’t so worried about looking cool.”

“Valid point,” Musk responded directly. “Milei gave me the chainsaw backstage and I ran with it, but, in retrospect, it lacked empathy.”

The chain saw incident in question happened during a strange, nearly incoherent interview Musk gave at the conservative conference that raises questions around his alleged drug use during and after the campaign.

Chainsaw regret.

[image or embed]

It seems that Musk has come to regret quite a few of the decisions he made as a key Trump confidant just halfway into the president’s first year in office. He’s gone from living at Mar-a-Lago to insinuating the president is a

© New Republic