Didja miss Chicago Public Square the last few days? Catch up by scrolling back through the Square Bluesky account. And now, the news for today:
‘Home-growns are next.’ President Trump’s joke-not-joke with El Salvador’s dictator-president Nayib Bukele is what Pod Save America co-host Dan Pfeiffer calls “the beginning of … a constitutional crisis.”
■ Columnist and lawyer Mitch Jackson: “Trump says he’s fine with sending U.S. citizens convicted of crimes to foreign prisons—and that should alarm every American.”
■ Historian Heather Cox Richardson: “Rather than being appalled … Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Attorney General Pam Bondi … erupted in laughter.”
■ Jon Stewart: “I did not think he would get this authoritarian this fast.”
■ Bukele to Trump: “You have 350 million people to liberate, you know. But to liberate 350 million people, you have to imprison some. You know, that’s the way it works, right?”
■ And, no, Bukele—the self-styled “world’s coolest dictator” (February link)—says, he won’t be returning a Maryland man sent there last month.
■ As The Onion sees it: “Salvadoran President Claims He Lacks Humanity To Return Wrongly Deported Man.”
■ Law professor Joyce Vance: “Let’s be clear. The United States Constitution does not permit the deportation of American citizens for committing a crime.”
■ The Bulwark’s Bill Kristol calls the whole scene “sickening.”
■ The Associated Press: The president’s call to ship U.S. citizens to El Salvador is likely illegal.
■ Time calls it “a striking example of Trump’s approach to his second term in office: When faced with challenges to his authority … he has reached for even more power.”
■ The Freedom of the Press Foundation warns: “If Trump can, in defiance of the Supreme Court, arbitrarily ‘disappear’ non-citizens in El Salvador, anyone else could be next—including journalists.”
■ Wonkette’s Gary Legum: “Our government is making these decisions based on the internet ramblings of anonymous vigilantes working for an organization that keeps its origins and employees secret.”
‘Whose turn is it now?’ Poynter’s Tom Jones recaps Trump’s more-than-daily attacks on journalists—just yesterday, including CNN’s Kaitlan Collins before she even asked a question at that news conference …
■ … from which, in defiance of a court order, Trump barred a reporter and photographer from the AP.
■ Before that: A terribly punctuated (as usual) social media attack on CBS and 60 Minutes …
■ … as the media mogul trying to take over CBS’ parent company has been spotted schmoozing with Trump …
■ … and as the White House preps a plan to cut taxpayer funding for public broadcasting—whining about a “lengthy history of anti-conservative bias.”
■ Reporters Without Borders is joining a legal coalition challenging Trump’s executive orders retaliating against law firms—an assault that it says is “making it much harder for the press to enlist legal counsel.”
■ The legal industry’s showing signs of a spine or two.
‘No government … should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.’ Harvard has told the president to take a flying leap with his demands the university clamp down on campus activism …
■ … and then Trump’s administration announced a freeze of $2.3 billion in federal funding for the school.
■ Ex-President Obama—a Harvard Law grad: “Let’s hope other institutions follow suit.”
■ Politico: “It’s hard to believe the administration will stop here.”
‘His well-being is also due to a cruel, indifferent universe where hardworking people are diagnosed with terminal illnesses, but an objectively evil monster who only eats cheeseburgers and fried chicken lives forever. The world is chaos, there is no God, proven by his frequent victories in golf events!’ That’s Stephen Colbert, putting into context the results of Trump’s presidential physical …
■ … which prompted this cartoon from Jack Ohman.
‘I would demand that Nazism be fully addressed in any 20th century high school history textbook. That does not mean I want a Nazi flag flying in front of the school.’ Columnist Neil Steinberg shuts down readers who defend the Trump administration’s war on history by citing previous administrations’ removal of Confederate flags and Robert E. Lee statues.
■ A new contract for Chicago Teachers Union members has won union support—and now goes to the school board.
Then they came for the zoo. The Trump/Musk Department of Government Efficiency has targeted a Brookfield Zoo program for a federal funding cut—even though a zoo vice president protests, “It’s about bio-diversity and animal welfare.”
■ Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility: A top Interior Department lawyer who tried to keep payroll and personnel data out of DOGE’s hands faces dismissal.
Biden’s back. The former president returns to the national spotlight with a speech tonight in Chicago.
■ Columnist Brian Beutler says a memo circulating among Capitol Hill staffers outlines procedural steps Democratic representatives can take to “make life painful for Republicans as they prepare to slash taxes for the rich, take health care away from tens of millions of Americans, and abet Trump’s efforts to establish an American dictatorship.”
Terrorism, arson and attempted homicide. Those are some of the charges against a man accused of setting fire to Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s mansion early Sunday.
Tax day bites. As today’s income tax filing deadline looms—with automatic extensions for those in states that suffered recent natural disasters (not Illinois)—some food franchises are softening the blow with cheap or freebie deals.
■ Napervillians planned a “No Taxes for Tyrants” rally this afternoon.
■ A new report says Illinoisans in the market for the tax breaks that come with going solar face “complex and cumbersome” state permitting requirements that can add months and increase costs for the simplest roof project.
■ A new report says Illinoisans in the market for the tax breaks that come with going solar face “complex and cumbersome” state permitting requirements that can add months and increase costs for the simplest roof project.
