‘Lunatic,’ ‘clearly insane.’ The New York Times (gift link) reports that President Trump’s former allies and advisers are increasingly questioning his mental health …
■ … and his longest-serving White House chief of staff in the first term “came to the conclusion that he was mentally ill.”
■ Press Watch columnist Dan Froomkin cheers the Times “for finally writing and publishing the article a lot of us have been calling for”—but adding: “You are not done with … one of the biggest political stories of all time. It’s your beat now. Own it.”
■ Former Tribune editor Mark Jacob: “Cancel the White House Correspondents’ Dinner … and avoid the certainty that … members would be forever remembered as suck-ups to a dictator.”
‘Trump’s God complex is truly out of hand.’ Demolishing the president’s assertion that the image of himself as Jesus was instead “me as a doctor,” columnist Eric Zorn celebrates some of the parodies.
■ Everyone is entitled to my own opinion proprietor Jeff Tiedrich: “Donny posted … AI slop of himself tarted up as Jesus, and then—shocker of shockers!—got dogpiled by his own normally-loyal evangelicals, who were outraged that Dear Leader would ever do such a thing, causing Donny to delete the post and try to pretend it never happened.”
■ The hapless vice president tried to pass it off as “a joke” …
■ … adding that Chicago-born Pope Leo should stay out of U.S. politics (another Times gift link).
■ Even Illinois’ Republican candidate for governor, Darren Bailey, has a problem with the president: “Trump mocking a Chicago-born Pope and posting himself as Jesus Christ is wrong.”
■ USA Today’s Chicago-based columnist Rex Huppke snarks: “All President Trump and I want is a pope who’s tough on crime. … A pope who, if he comes across a person with close ties to a notorious child sex trafficking ring, a person who was previously found liable for sexual abuse, leaps into action.”
■ Jimmy Kimmel: “What does the pope have to do with crime? … This is what happens when you sell Bibles instead of reading them.”
■ Jon Stewart last night agreed with what your Chicago Public Square columnist had been saying all day: Trump’s “patient” in that post looks like Stewart.
■ Appearing with Colbert last night, Chicago guy Nick Offerman recalled the development of his friendship with fellow Chicago guy Jeff Tweedy: “We are in love, and he just doesn’t know it yet.”
■ Colbert also offered a clue to his post-Late Show plans: “I think I’m goin’ home” to what might be “the reddest state in the Union.”
‘Poll porn.’ Wonkette’s Evan Hurst sees Democrats “getting closer and closer” to taking the Senate.
■ … although Republican Tony Gonzales of Texas is also quitting in disgrace. (Cartoon: Jack Ohman.)
‘Conservative media’s favorite Chicago Democrat.’ Block Club: As Southwest Side neighbors were targeted or hid in their homes, City Council member Ray Lopez “repeatedly defended Trump’s immigration roundups.”
■ A Trib editorial (gift link) calls out Homeland Security boss Markwayne Mullin: “Keep the nation’s customs and immigration laws in place at O’Hare.”
Not Proud. A City Council committee’s advanced a ban on Chicago police officers’ membership in the reactionary Proud Boys and other extremist groups.
■ In a new study of police staffing, City That Works columnist Richard Day sees an opportunity to put 600 more cops on the city’s streets.
■ Also advancing in the council: The city’s first cab fare hike in a decade.
Hatches battened, please. The Chicago area this afternoon could see another round of tornadoes and hail.
■ NBC 5 meteorologist Alicia Roman sees “all weather hazards at play.”
‘The internet’s most powerful archiving tool is in peril.’ Wired warns that major news outlets are cutting off the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine …
■ … where, coincidentally, a Chicago-based music fan’s astonishing 10,000 concert recordings—including early performances by artists such as R.E.M., The Cure, The Pixies, The Replacements and more have been posted for the public to enjoy (and where much of your Square columnist’s audio career has also been preserved).
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