‘The enemy within’ … Chicago? President Trump told the nation’s assembled generals he’s ready to send the military into Chicago and other cities as “training grounds.”
■ Hundreds rallied downtown last night to protest the notion.
■ A Tribune editorial (gift link, possible because readers like you underwrite the cost of producing Chicago Public Square): “No … Chicagoans are not ‘the enemy within.’”
■ Popular Information: Trump’s use of that phrase evokes an ugly chapter in U.S. history.
■ The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Will Bunch (another gift link): “Grandpa Trump … saw a five-year-old riot on Fox News, so he’s sending in the troops.”
■ Columnist Steve Chapman: “America is becoming … a country where only those who submit to his every demand can feel safe.”
■ Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul is threatening a lawsuit against the incursions.
■ The Daily Show: The Pentagon’s gonna need some new recruitment ads: “We’ll fly you to hostile lands like … Chicago, where you’ll defend America from people who make fun of our president.”
‘A crazy moment.’ A witness describes ICE’s chase of a bicyclist through downtown Chicago.
■ See it here.
■ Chicago congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh talks to Teen Vogue about the viral video showing her getting tear-gassed by ICE.
■ Borderless explains your rights if ICE stops you while driving.
■ The suburb of Broadview has launched three criminal investigations of the agents who’ve been terrorizing demonstrators near ICE’s processing center there.
■ WBEZ’s published a transcript and unedited audio of the interview in which U.S. Border Patrol commander-at-large Gregory Bovino admits his team has been choosing people to arrest based partly on “how they look.”
■ In a decision that lawyer and columnist Joyce Vance calls “startling” and “incredibly important,” a Ronald Reagan-appointed federal judge has condemned Trump’s moves to deport pro-Palestinian academics.
■ 404 Media: Reversing an earlier pledge, ICE is buying a tool that tracks the locations of hundreds of millions of phones a day.
‘Ghastly, inappropriate and embarrassing.’ USA Today’s Rex Huppke assesses yesterday’s military conclave to hear from “a former Fox News host and a convicted felon who received five military deferments during the Vietnam War.” (Cartoon: Jack Ohman.)
■ Historian Heather Cox Richardson: For 70 minutes, the president “spoke slowly … delivering to the hundreds of professionals who had rushed from around the world to attend this meeting a rambling, incoherent stream of words.”
■ Evan Hurst at Wonkette: “That Pete Hegseth speech could’ve been a spam email for boner pills.”
■ Axios says 11 quotes convey “Trump and Hegseth’s plan for a MAGA military reset.”
‘There is something genuinely wrong with this man.’ Diagnosing Trump with dementia, Gov. Pritzker is calling for application of the 25th Amendment to remove him from power.
■ On MSNBC last night, Pritzker addressed the president directly: “We don’t want you here.”
Shut. Down. Updating coverage: Much of the federal government’s officially closed for business today—with a quarter-million workers furloughed—and many potentially fired.
■ … and ICE can continue to chill the citizenry …
■ … but it could cost many of Illinois’ more than 153,000 federal workers dearly.
■ Jen Rubin at The Contrarian: “If Democrats do their job, Republicans may regret forcing through an agenda Americans detest” …
■ … but, The American Prospect notes, because “the reactionary Supreme Court has given him Congress’s power of the purse … Trump could end any ‘shutdown’ immediately by just directing the agencies to reopen and the money to be spent. John Roberts certainly isn’t going to stop him. Is House Speaker Mike Johnson? Please.”
■ Trump told reporters yesterday he sees an opportunity here: “We can get rid of a lot of things that we didn’t want, and they’d be Democrat things.”
■ In a suit filed last night, multiple labor unions accuse Trump’s Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought* of using the shutdown as cover to fire federal workers illegally en masse.
■ The AP reviews previous federal shutdowns—including two under Trump’s first term.
Award declined. Facing anti-abortion forces’ objections because he’s supported legal abortion, Sen. Dick Durbin says he’s turning down an honor from the Archdiocese of Chicago for his work on immigration policy.
■ In remarks that Politico’s Shia Kapos describes as “both careful and bold,” Chicago-born Pope Leo himself defended the decision to celebrate Durbin’s career: “Someone who says, ‘I’m against abortion but I’m in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States,’ I don’t know if that’s pro-life.”
■ The Sun-Times: A priest later accused of child sex abuse was among the instructors at the future pope’s seminary high school.
Does Amazon owe you? Tom’s Guide explains what you’ll need to collect a share of the settlement of a suit accusing the company of tricking customers into signing up for its Prime service.
■ You’ll have to have enrolled after June 23, 2019.
Late-night worlds collide. ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel and CBS’ Stephen Colbert were on one another’s shows last night—simultaneously …
■ … and NBC’s Seth Meyers made a cameo in Kimmel’s monologue.
■ Colbert shared never-broadcast footage of the moment he learned Kimmel’s show had been suspended …
■ … and Kimmel said his suspension was “like a DUI in L.A., three days in jail where I couldn’t say anything.”
■ It’s comedian vs. comedian as some join a controversial comedy fest in Saudi Arabia.
■ Forty years after its debut, LateNighter offers an oral history of David Letterman’s “Top 10 list” …
■ … including the first 10 “Top 10” lists.
■ The Onion: “Physical Media Collector Pumped For Downfall Of Humanity.”
Clarification. An item in yesterday’s Chicago Public Square failed to specify that the president’s AI-generated video showed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer labeling Democrats “a bunch of woke pieces of shit.”
Join us for a deep dive into the world of AI tools and fact-check tech—free. Chicago Public Square and Northwestern University’s Local News Accelerator are teaming up to offer you interactive online coaching already received by thousands of professional journalists. Online, Nov. 3, noon-2 p.m. Registration details here.
* Also guy who shares a name with the evil corporation on the dystopian shows The Boys and Gen V.