I was a bit surprised by this editorial. Maybe I shouldn't have been since it does make some good points.
"Cleaning up the city is a worthy task, and local control is dysfunctional."
President Trump took federal control of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department on Monday, pledging to “rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor—and worse.” He’s also calling up 800 troops from the D.C. National Guard to assist. Now Washingtonians and visitors can judge Police Commissioner Trump by the results he gets.
The Constitution establishes the District of Columbia as a federal enclave, so there’s no abuse of power in Congress and the President exercising authority over it. (Mr. Trump’s threats to intervene in the policing of Chicago, say, are a different matter.) These days D.C. largely governs itself, using delegated powers, but the law preserves Presidential control of the police during emergencies, generally up to 30 days unless Congress approves.
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In a news conference at the White House, the President mentioned the recent assault of a former DOGE staffer, Edward Coristine. He said murders hit a high in 2023, when 274 were killed.
Violent crime has since fallen, as the press quickly pointed out, and fair enough. Nobody can accuse Mr. Trump of understatement, given his vision of D.C. as painted by Hieronymus Bosch. “Our capital city,” he said, “has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged out maniacs, and homeless people.” Yet Mr. Trump’s opponents are in the awkward position of arguing it’s no emergency if last year a mere 187 people were murdered and only 1,026 were assaulted with a dangerous weapon.
By getting involved in D.C. governance, Mr. Trump is setting a precedent, and the next Democratic President could follow it, with other priorities. Yet Republicans might still consider that an improvement on the status quo. At least the White House is sensitive to national opinion, which is larger than the progressive voter base that elects the D.C. City Council.
Recall that President Biden signed a Congressional resolution in 2023, amid that year’s murder surge, to overturn the D.C. City Council’s revisions to its criminal code, which included a reduction in the maximum penalties for carjacking and illegal gun possession. The vote in Congress included dozens of Democratic ayes. One was Minnesota Rep. Angie Craig, who had been assaulted in an elevator at her D.C. apartment building. Another was Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar, who later that year was carjacked at gunpoint.
On the whole, local control of D.C. looks like a failure. The city has enshrined noncitizen voting in local elections and “sanctuary” policies to thwart federal immigration enforcement. Why should the President and Congress stand for this in America’s seat of government?
Mr. Trump loves to cast himself as a man of action, and now he’s top cop. If he really helps to clean up D.C., clearing out homeless camps and making public spaces safer for residents and tourists, he’ll deserve thanks.
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