When President Trump asserts federal control over Washington, D.C., half measures won’t do. To succeed, he needs to go all the way — and his plan to extend the federal presence in the district is a good start.

The 1973 Home Rule Act allows a president to reassert control over the Metropolitan Police Department for 30 days. Extending beyond that would likely require a congressional resolution or invoking emergency powers, either of which would trigger a Capitol Hill fight. Democrats’ push for D.C. statehood — and two guaranteed Senate seats — depends on convincing Americans that the district can govern itself. It can’t. The city’s experiment in representative democracy has failed as spectacularly as many regimes in the Middle East.

Federal control must apply the broken-windows model: Enfo

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