TRUMP’S BOOMERANG EFFECT. The Washington Post’s Fred Hiatt documents the ways in which the president’s policies are turning against him. “For every malignant or bigoted action, there will be an opposite reaction. And you can never be sure where it will begin.”
■ A Republican senator who never endorsed Trump says the party’s been compromised by “populism and protectionism, isolationism, xenophobia.”
■ Washington Free Beacon editor: “After six months of trying to behave like a conventional Republican president, he’s done. His opponents now include not only the Democrats, but the elites of both political parties.”
■ Politico: “The Final Humiliation of Reince Priebus.”
■ Neil Steinberg in the Sun-Times: Don’t assume Trump’s hit bottom: “It’s going to get worse and worse and worse.”
OUR NEXT CONTESTANT … Retired United States Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly's been sworn in as Trump's new chief of staff.
■ The director of Johns Hopkins University’s Strategic Studies Program calls the appointment “depressing”: “It is inappropriate to have so many generals in policy-making positions; it is profoundly wrong to have a president regard the military as a constituency.”
■ The chair of Chicago’s Pritzker Military Museum & Library—and gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker’s cousin—Jennifer Pritzker to Trump: Gender status doesn’t distract the military. Hiding who you are does.”
■ On Friday, the speaker of the U.S. House promised Republicans will “stick the landing on tax reform.”
■ From March, his prediction on health care reform: “We just basically stick the landing and get it done.” (Photo: Gage Skidmore.)
TO SWIM OR NOT TO SWIM? The City of Chicago and University of Illinois researchers have come up with a faster way to figure out when Lake Michigan bacteria are enough of a threat to close beaches.
■ Axios: Scott Pruitt may be the most powerful Environmental Protection Agency boss. Ever.
TWO CHICAGOS.
■ Police have arrested a parolee who they say carried a loaded AK-47 onto a CTA platform.
■ A vandal has defaced a Logan Square monument with a quote from an Austrian-British philosopher of mathematics.
‘BAD PUBLIC POLICY AND BAD PUBLIC FINANCE.’ To get a $500 million loan, Chicago schools will pay $1.35 billion.
■ Developing: Gov. Rauner’s likely today to get and then veto a plan to overhaul Illinois school funding.
THE TIMES vs. THE POST. Former Tribune managing editor and Washington bureau chief James Warren says the Trump era is fueling a historic newspaper war between The New York Times and the Washington Post.
■ Radio consultant Fred Jacobs: Six things traditional media can learn from Post and Amazon owner Jeff Bezos.
■ The R. Kelly “cult” story almost never ran—because several outlets turned it down in fear.
■ The account of Scaramucci’s expletive-filled rant set a New Yorker traffic record.
■ The (conservative) National Review: “Death of a F***ing Salesman.”
GOOD SPORTS, BAD SPORTS.
■ Sun-Times columnist and ex-college football player Rick Telander is donating his brain to science.
■ New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie mixed it up with a critical fan at Sunday’s Cubs-Brewers game.
■ NASA wants your help during the eclipse—regardless of where you are, and even if you’re somewhere cloudy or rainy. (Photo: Luc Viatour.)
CORRECTION. The Friday emailed edition of Square bore a bad link for the lead item, “Sen. John McCain killed President Trump’s health care overhaul plan.” Fixed it.
■ Be first to note a mistake in Square, email Goof@ChicagoPublicSquare.com and see your name here.