Mixed signals / Final face-off / Wait wait … / Laundry day

Mixed signals. Defense Secretary Hegseth predicted that today would bring “our most intense day of strikes inside Iran” …

■ … even as President Trump declared the war “very complete” …

■ … a line that inspired late-night hosts to make the same joke, two ways.

■ Plainspoken Jeff Tiedrich: “Donny flipped the Big Skateboard of Foreign Policy™ up into his own nuts, and now has to pretend that he meant to do that.”

■ Historian Heather Cox Richardson: “It has become clear that Trump had no plan in Iran other than to strike it, knock out the leaders he didn’t like, and hope the Iranian people would rise up and put in place new leaders he could deal with.”

■ PolitiFact dumps water on presidential press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s suggestion that a military draft is an option on the president’s table.

‘Disgusting and juvenile war porn.’ The guy who has long voiced “Master Chief” in the Halo video games, Steve Downes, has condemned the appropriation of his work in the White House social media campaign for the conflict.

■ You may remember Downes as a DJ on WDRV-FM, Chicago’s “The Drive”—a role he departed in 2015.

‘Spiking gas prices will make me filthy rich.’ USA Today’s Chicago-based columnist Rex Huppke: “Thanks, Trump!”

■ Columnist Brian Tyler Cohen: “Trump started a war and you’re paying for it at the pump.”

■ Seth Meyers: “One thing you can’t lie about is gas prices … because they’re on giant f***ing signs on the side of the road.”

■ Robert Hubbell at Today’s Edition: “The wheels are coming off the Trump bus.”

‘Her claims should be taken seriously.’ Popular Information surveys what we know and what’s still being hidden about Trump’s alleged sexual assault of a minor.

■ Columnist Eric Zorn on the significance of Trump’s baseball cap faux pas: “There is no one around Trump … to say, ‘Hey, yeah, boss, you know, this is not a good idea. Let’s rethink.’”

■ Columnist and former Tribune and Sun-Times editor Mark Jacob: Democrats should zero in on Trump’s unlikeable adviser, Stephen Miller, as the face of the Republican Party. (Cartoon: Jack Ohman.)

Blitz redux? Spring’s approach raises concern about the prospect of another Midway Blitz assault on the Chicago area by Trump’s immigration thugs.

■ The Sun-Times reports the high-powered Chicago law firm that fought back in court wants a special prosecutor to investigate and potentially charge those responsible—even as the Cook County state’s attorney says she opposes the notion.

■ The New York Times (gift link): “In scathing ruling, judge says 3 Trump prosecutors are in unlawful roles.”

Final face-off. The Trib recaps the last scheduled debate among leading candidates for the Democratic nomination for Illinois’ Senate seat.

■ You can see it here.

■ Also from the Trib (gift link): Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi’s fundraising for that campaign is drawing scrutiny.

■ Politico: Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s coming to Illinois Friday to headline a rally for Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton in that race.

■ Sen. Bernie Sanders is backing state Sen. Karina Villa for comptroller.

■ Undecided about the March 17 primary? The Chicago Public Square Voter Guide Guide’s here to help.

‘Trump just pardoned Ticketmaster when no one was looking.’ Monopoly expert Matt Stoller says a “specter of corruption” haunts the settlement of an antitrust case against the company.

■ Illinois and other states are rejecting the deal.

■ Echoing Trump’s campaign pledge to “save vaping,” his FDA has opened the door to more flavored e-cigarettes.

Wait wait … for May 23, when legendary Chicago TV anchorman Bill Kurtis steps down from his role as judge and scorekeeper on NPR’s Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me!

■ In a memo to staff, Kurtis, who’s 85, says, “There is no better way to stay young than to surround yourself with this crew of outrageously talented people who have no fear in taking down anything and anyone with a well-placed joke.”

■ In a 2017 Chicago Public Square podcast, host Peter Sagal celebrated Kurtis’ contribution to the show (at 48:38).

■ Reportedly unhappy with newly Trump-compliant CBS News’ meager coverage of the anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection whose aftermath he covered in detail, justice correspondent Scott MacFarlane is quitting the network.

■ His note to colleagues: “I look forward to some independence and finding new spaces to share my work in line with my personal goals.”

Nice while it lasted. A day after record high temperatures and sunny skies …

■ … the Chicago area was bracing for bad weather today.

Laundry day. Got a Chicago Public Square T-shirt or hoodie? Make sure it’s clean so you can wear it Thursday, National Support Chicago Public Square Day 2026.

■ Then be ready to share a photo of yourself wearing it on social media and encourage friends to sign up for Square, free.

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Meet the new boss / ‘It’s disgusting’ / Daylight saved? / New colors!

Meet the new boss, son of the old boss. Iran’s named Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s replacement: His hard-line offspring, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.

■ Time: He’s wielded clout behind the scenes for years.

‘Why did the war begin?’ Nine days in, Popular Information says, Trump and his administration have failed to answer that most fundamental question about their actions in Iran.

■ Law and Chaos columnist Liz Dye: “Right now would be a really good time for the U.S. to have a direct line to speak to the Iranian people. A radio station, broadcasting directly into Iran from a friendly Gulf state like, say … Kuwait. But we don’t because Arizona’s perennial loser Kari Lake pulled the plug” …

■ … although a federal judge has now ruled that Lake’s actions to dismantle Voice of America were illegal.

■ Chicago-born journalist Terry Moran—fired from ABC after a tweet critical of Trump (June link)—on gas prices climbing as the Iran war unfolds: “The earth is beginning to shake. The man in the White House is yelling at it to stop.”

■ The Wall Street Journal: “The long-feared Persian Gulf oil squeeze is upon us … acting as a tax on consumers.”

■ The AP: “New footage raises likelihood the U.S. struck an Iranian school where a blast killed at least 165.”

■ Author and Emmy-winning veteran NBC and NPR broadcast journalist Jeff Kamen: Because Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is a “cartoon character of mindless machismo, it is unlikely that there were psychologists on the scene to help the missile crew sort out the shock to their system.”

■ The Onion: “Trump To Americans: ‘You Won’t Have To Pay Your Son’s Cell Phone Bill When He Dies At War.’”

‘Now is the time to be loudly anti-war.’ Handbasket columnist Marisa Kabas: “We can distance ourselves by calling it ‘Trump’s War,’ but the fact remains that, as the president of this country, his actions cast a filthy pall on all of us.”

■ As Hegseth revels in the carnage, military experts are sounding the alarm: “I can’t even muster the words to describe his self-adulation, matched only in scope by his apparent moral depravity.”

■ Colin Jost, playing Hegseth on Saturday Night Live’s opener: “Whoever called this a war, except maybe the president a couple of times accidentally?”

■ LateNighter: The corporate escape routes are narrowing for late night’s comic Trump critics.

Ya think? Virginia Democratic Sen.—and 2016 vice presidential candidate—Tim Kaine says his vote to confirm Kristi Noem as Homeland Security secretary was a “big mistake.”

■ Columnist Jeff Tiedrich has questions about Noem’s new portfolio: “What the fuck is a Shield of the Americas?”

■ The Onion: “Noem Reassigned To Scarecrow Role At USDA.”

‘We were being lied to our faces.’ Friends and supporters say Customs and Border Protection agents detained six legal U.S. residents—returning to O’Hare Thursday from a work trip to Turkey—for more than 30 hours without explanation.

■ The Trump administration faces a court filing accusing it of wrongly deporting hundreds of people.

‘It’s disgusting.’ Civil Discourse columnist Joyce Vance: “If you’re Donald Trump, nothing says great opportunity for pushing your merchandise like bringing home fallen soldiers.”

■ But, hey, Fox News covered for him.

Racism rising. That was Gov. Pritzker’s warning yesterday in Alabama, joining thousands marking the 61st anniversary of Selma’s “Bloody Sunday,” a protest that sparked passage of the Voting Rights Act—which the governor says faces a gutting by the Supreme Court.

■ Republicans vying for the chance to challenge Pritzker are running this time without cash from big-bucks regressives.

■ When you hear U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush in a campaign commercial for Jesse Jackson Jr., you’re hearing an AI-restored version of his voice, weakened by throat cancer.

■ If you’re ready to dig into your ballot for the March 17 primary, the Chicago Public Square Voter Guide Guide awaits.

Ticketmaster punched. The company’s parent, Live Nation, reportedly has cut a deal with the Justice Department to settle an antitrust case launched under President Biden.

■ Early reports indicated the company would have to open parts of its platform to rivals and would agree to limits on its longtime exclusivity deals with venues.

Daylight saved? At least five bills in Congress would make daylight saving time—on which we now are, at the earliest date possible under present law—permanent.

■ Honk if these seasonal disjunctions add credence to this 2012 call to shift the whole world to Universal Time.

New colors! We’ve doubled the number of shades in which Square T-shirts and hoodies are available.

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