In August, President Trump claimed that crime in the District of Columbia was “out of control,” saying the mayhem “endangers public servants, citizens and tourists, disrupts safe and secure transportation and the proper functioning of the Federal government.” To rescue the capital from “bloodshed, bedlam, squalor and worse,” the president issued an executive order, based on a provision of the Home Rule Act, declaring a state of emergency, authorizing a take-over of the city’s Metropolitan Police Department, and bringing National Guard troops into Washington to restore order.

“We have a very safe city now,” Trump announced fewer than two months later. It is “an objective fact” that crime had dropped dramatically, a spokeswoman for the White House asserted: compared to the same period in 20

See Full Page