“It’s a natural instinct as a real estate person,” he said in announcing his federal takeover of the capital’s police, despite falling crime.

The president has railed against crime in urban, largely liberal cities for decades, but Monday’s announcement was an extraordinary exertion of federal power over an American city.

President Trump has long railed about crime in blue cities. Now he’s effectively put himself in charge of policing one of them.

“It’s a natural instinct as a real estate person,” he said in announcing his federal takeover of the capital’s police, despite falling crime.

We look at crime in the nation’s capital and President Trump’s legal authority to intervene.

The Trump administration has taken steps that have hobbled Washington’s efforts to reduce crime, such as gutting its U.S. attorney’s office and enacting budget cuts of more than…