DID TRUMP MAKE IT UP?
President Donald Trump, listen up! It’s a no! Mayor Rahm Emanuel says you are wrong.
The mayor claims Trump did NOT send him a business card from a Chicago Police official who allegedly told Trump he could solve Chicago’s violence problem in a couple of days.
“It never happened,” said mayoral spokesmanAdam Collins.
“It’s absolutely not true,” Collins said.
The case of the mysterious Chicago cop card is not the first time Trump has mentioned it in his ongoing criticism of Chicago and its homicide rate. It came up again Friday during a Trump rally in Ronkonkoma, New York.
“I said, ‘ What the hell is going on?’ ” Trump said Friday. “I said, ‘ How long would it take you to straighten out this problem?’ ”
“He said, ‘ If you gave me the authority, a couple of days. I really mean it.’ ”
Trump claims it happened while he was campaigning here last year under the escort of a “brigade” of police motorcycles.
Well, vroom vroom, Mr. President.
Trump sees red, turns blue . . .
It’s pretty clear PresidentTrump has no love for the blue state of Illinois.
The Donald sees red whenever Chicago is mentioned.
So how come the Trumpster treats Chicago like a Tsetse fly he continues to swat? Here’s how come. Trump . . . ◆ Has yet to visit Chicago since his election.
◆ Still seethes over the Chicago violent protest prefacing his campaign rally at the UIC Pavilion in March 2016, which he wound up canceling.
◆ Continues to publicly blast Chicago for its homicide stats — but has yet to nominate a new U. S. attorney for the northern district of Illinois!
( Chicago attorney John Lausch’s name was forwarded to Trump by the Republican delegation, but the appointment is still in limbo.)
◆ Has no relationship with Gov. Bruce Rauner, who privately thinks Trump’s behavior is akin to a wackadoodle and eschews his business tactics.
◆ Feels Rahm Emanuel is nettlesome; a Hillary Clinton pal, and a former Barack Obama adviser.
◆ Steered a huge Foxconn Taiwanese electronics contract to Wisconsin, ostensibly to thwack the state of Illinois for not voting for him.
“His last visit to Chicago was a hush- hush Trump Tower respite en route to a Bolingbrook fundraiser luncheon tossed by Mayor Roger Claar before the election, and Trump complained about how long it was taking to get there,” a Sneed source said.
So is a visit to Chicago on Trump’s radar in the near future? Probably not. Unless, of course, our narcissistic president plans to personally command the battalion of troops to clean up our war- torn, gang- infested neighborhoods led by the “mysterious Chicago Police official” who said it would take him two days to end the violence if given the authority.
Stay tuned.
Obamarama . . .
Yum. Sneed is told former first lady Michelle Obama is in town and hired Blue Door to do the catering for a dinner with neighborhood pals at her Kenwood home Saturday night. Hello Obama. BFF/ neighbor Valerie Jarrett.
The Sinatra story . . .
Comedian Tom Dreesen gets Sneed’s “Smarter than a box of Foxes” award for an excuse to scratch lunch with Sneed.
“I’ve been asked to be a pallbearer and speak at the funeral of Barbara Sinatra, Frank’s widow,” said Dreesen, a close friend of the Sinatras and an opening act for the legendary singer for years.
“Then we will hold a private celebration of Barbara’s life at the Annenberg Estates, where she and Frank were married,” he added.
“You know when I was a little boy shining shoes in the bars in Harvey, I was flying high listening to Frank on all their jukeboxes. Who knew I’d wind up flying all over the world with him?”
Dreesen said Barbara spent and raised millions to help abused children at the Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center in California. “She turned no child away,” he said. “And the gates of heaven will be open to her.”
The Driehaus affair . . .
Hedge fund chairman Richard H. Driehaus, who tossed his annual summer party this weekend at his Lake Geneva Estate for 1,100 friends — hauled out the TV dinner trays, erected Mom’s Diner and tossed in an American Farmstand to spin into the 1950s- themed Driehaus Drive- in bash.
And if you weren’t there, comedian and Late Night Show legend Jay Leno was.
A sports short . . .
Tune in: Dateline NBC is running a piece at 6 p. m. Sunday based on the Sun- Times’ sensational fivepart story on Orr Academy written by stellar Sun- Times sports writer Rick Telander. It features Orr Coach Lou Adams.
Sneedlings . . .
Congrats to Sun- Times reporter Stefano Esposito and wife, Tracy, who have a new reporter- in- training in the family. Matteo Marco entered the world Friday morning. . . . Saturday’s birthdays: Dak Prescott, 24; Martina McBride, 51; and Tim Gunn, 64. . . . Sunday’s birthdays: Lisa Kudrow, 54; Arnold Schwarzenegger, 70; and Vivica A. Fox, 53.