CALLED TO ACCOUNT
The Trump dump is underway. It’s already getting soooooo ugly. And President Donald Trump is the rather expensive bait in the mayoral campaign.
To wit: Sneed hears the minions of mayoral candidate Garry McCarthy, whose anti- Rahm campaign is already underway, are resurrecting an old flap involving a $ 50,000 mayoral campaign contribution given to Mayor Rahm Emanuel in December 2010 by the Trumpster when he was a mere real estate mogul.
Backshot: In 2016, when Trump was running for president, Emanuel was asked if he’d return the Trump money after the City Council voted to remove the honorary “Trump Plaza” sign outside Trump Tower, and Ald. Brendan Reilly ( 42nd) — who led the drive to remove the sign — pledged to return the $ 5,000 Trump had contributed to his campaign. Emanuel basically said, “No.” His campaign spokesman Pete Giangreco sent out a statement back then stating: “We’re not going to put money from a 5- year- old donation back into Donald Trump’s pocket today, and we’re not going to stop denouncing everything he says.”
Upshot: Late Thursday, Giangreco told Sneed: “The mayor refused to return the money because he didn’t want Trump using it in his campaign against Hillary Clinton.”
Ouch. Ouch.
Pssst!
Sneed also hears McCarthy has met once with probable mayoral candidate Paul Vallas — at McCarthy’s invitation — to discuss their united opposition to Mayor Emanuel.
Double psst!
Friends of Hillary are hoping plans to return to Chicago next month are on track. Her close friends are concerned about her and want to give her a little TLC.
Stay tuned.
Ring. Ring.
Wrong! On election night, an ecstatically over- the- top Gov. Bruce Rauner thanked his supporters by telling his audience he had just “talked” to Senate President John Cullerton. “Not!” said Cullerton. “He called, but we never talked.”
Curtain calls . . .
In the basement, but on the right track.
The short film “HAMMERSMITH: Hurdle of Dreams,” a top 12 winner competing against nearly 5,000 others in 2017’ s ‘‘ 48 Hour Film Project,” honoring flicks shot in a 48- hour period of time, was not only honored at Filmapalooza 2018 in Paris — but was directed by Kyle Leland Cullerton, son of Senate President John Cullerton and wife Pam.
“Kyle’s film is also the first ‘ City Winner’ from Chicago selected to screen at Cannes Film Festival 2018 in the festival’s history,” said proud papa Cullerton, who added: “Kyle lives in our basement and he wants to be filmmaker Stanley ‘ A Clockwork Orange’ Kubrick.”
Royal stuff . . .
What a relief! Prince Harry and his American fiancée, Northwestern University alum Meghan Markle, have dispatched 600 invites to the May wedding at St. George’s Chapel in London.
Will Meghan invite her college buddies?
Will Harry invite Elton John, who sang at his mother’s funeral?
Will the men really wear military uniforms or a morning coat and a lounge hat?
Copy that.
March ’ em . . .
Fighting gun violence: Cardinal Blase Cupich heads to Saint Sabina Church at 6 p. m. Friday to bid bon voyage to Father Michael Pfleger and six busloads of young adults heading to Washington, D. C., to join the March For Our Lives inspired by the students at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
Sneedlings . . .
Today’s birthdays: Kyrie Irving, 26; Ayesha Curry, 29; and Brett Eldredge, 32.