‘Trump is a racist.’ Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg: “The president is a bigot. … His supporters are either bigots or just don’t care about bigotry because they want to … return to a white supremacy.”
■ The New York Times’ Charles M. Blow: At the core of Trump’s support, “white extinction anxiety.”
■ Longtime conservative and Republican supporter George Will is encouraging Republicans to vote against the Republican Party in November.
■ NBC News: Trump’s reportedly not listening (much) to his defense secretary.
‘You have become me circa 2009.’ Ex-Fox News host Glenn Beck walked off CNN Sunday after complaining mainstream media coverage is “driving people into the arms of Donald Trump.”
■ A New York Times reporter who’s been studying Trump’s supporters mirrors Beck’s conclusion: Constant criticism has created a “bonding experience” that keeps the party and its voters aligned.
■ Sanders’ own tweet about the incident may have violated federal ethics rules.
■ On Twitter, Trump went full-Yelp against the restaurant. (Cartoon: Keith Taylor.)
‘I’ve lost everything.’ Roseanne Barr tearfully says she regrets the racist tweet that killed her revived show and has made her, in her words, “a hate magnet.”
■ Oak Park-born comedian Kathy Griffin—widely criticized after posing with a mockup of Trump’s severed head last year—resurfaces at the Chicago Theatre Thursday: “I had everyone turn on me. Friends, enemies, veterans, people I knew personally.”
Do you thank the bus driver? It’s a debate on the internet.
■ Aiming to spark more residential growth like that near Chicago’s train stations, Mayor Emanuel’s pushing to expand perks for developers of housing along “high-ridership, high-frequency” bus routes.
■ … and to invest $5 million in construction of affordable homes on vacant lots in six economically depressed South and West side neighborhoods.
Bridge to nowhere. The O’Hare airport oasis over the Tri-State Tollway is about to disappear.
■ The City of Chicago is offering the historic Chicago Avenue Bridge over the Chicago River free to anyone who can pay the cost of removal.
■ In all Politifact’s ratings of the 2018 Illinois gubernatorial race, lots of “falses” for both candidates, but only Rauner rates two “pants on fire” findings.
‘All of the sudden they started getting like a thousand boxes a day and then more and then more.’ An asylum-seeker rest center in Texas is getting flooded with donations.
■ Rep. Luis Gutierrez, Illinois’ first and only Hispanic member of Congress, tells the Sun-Times’ Lynn Sweet he’s moving to Puerto Rico—and won’t run for president.
Clarification. Reader Paul Clark was first to note confusing wording in Friday’s Chicago Public Square item about a Supreme Court ruling on cell phone privacy. He also flagged wording errors—the wrong day of the week (twice)—in the Politico account to which Square linked. And then Politico fixed it.
■ If you’re first to report an error in Square to Squerror@ChicagoPublicSquare.com, you, too, can see your name here in hyperlinked glory.
Steel yourself. Square will be taking the week of July 2 off. If advertiser and reader support continues to grow for this project, someday—we’re not there yet, but someday—Square might be able to pay for vacation fill-ins.
