To justify his deployment of the National Guard to the streets of Washington, D.C., as part of his federal takeover of the city’s police force, President Donald Trump has declared a “crime emergency” in the nation’s capital, even though federal officials in his own administration recently announced that violent crime in the District of Columbia has hit a 30-year low. In a press conference on Monday, Trump announced that these forces “can do whatever the hell they want” to curb crime, an unprecedented presidential directive, and another assertion of his belief that he enjoys absolute power under Article II of the Constitution.

Trump has invoked the 1973 Washington, D.C. Home Rule Act, which permits the president to take control of the city’s police force for a temporary period, up to 30 da

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