President Trump’s effort to lessen crime in Washington, D.C., and launch a “beautification” effort is clashing with a long tradition of Republicans criticizing and outright writing off the nation’s cities.

Republicans and conservatives for years — decades, even — had amplified the failures in cities as being the result of Democratic policies and flaunted migration from blue urban centers to red states. And as those on the right have slammed the nation’s metropolises, only a tiny fraction of the biggest cities have Republican mayors, and there’s scant discussion in right-wing circles and institutions about urban policy.

Trump’s new fixation on D.C. and takeover of police could give conservatives an opportunity to increase their foothold in urban policy and in cities.

A big challenge, though, is getting the conservative base to care about the hubs of Democratic and progressive power at all.

Conservative commentator Charlie Kirk last month made a lengthy post on the social platform X arguing why conservatives should care about the New York City mayoral race:

“All of America looks toward New York. … Plenty of people wanted us to abandon college campuses as lost cause communist no-go zones, but we learned last year that if we bothered to fight back, we could turn the tide. New York can be the same way,” Kirk said.

And in a monologue on his radio show on Monday, Kirk argued that Republicans face a question of political will when it comes to addressing policies and outcomes that they don't like in cities. “You need to dive deep and dig deep, to have the fortitude, the wherewithal, the spine, the cojones, the chutzpah to achieve what you want to achieve,” Kirk said. “We just put up with crime for the last 40 years because we're afraid of being called racist.”

Some on the right, though, are content to let the progressive left take their policies in cities as far as they want in order to maintain a foil. Columnist George Will put it succinctly when he told HBO host Bill Maher this month that he wants Zohran Mamdani to win the New York City electoral race: “Every 20 years or so, we need a conspicuous, confined experiment with socialism so we can crack it up again.”

Aaron Renn, a writer who has explored city policy, noted it has not always been that way, pointing to former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani once being hailed as a great Republican mayor. And Renn said a result of Republicans ceding those fights in cities means there are far fewer Republicans with city-level experience: “There are simply fewer people in sort of Republican political world who have an urban perspective, because there's just fewer of them."

Despite the challenges, there has been a ripple of movement on the right in favor of more active urban involvement

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson has repeatedly talked on his podcast about the cleanliness of cities being a reflection of a successful or unsuccessful society.

And after Dallas Mayor Eric L. Johnson switched parties to become a Republican in 2023, he founded the Republican Mayors Association — the first GOP group focused solely on GOP mayors.

“For a long time, you had, I think everybody took some of the cities for granted. The Democrats took them for granted, just assuming that cities would continue to vote Democrat, regardless of how the cities were being run,” Bridgewater, N.J., Mayor Matthew Moench, chair of the Republican Mayors Association advisory board, told me. But the group, he said, is aiming to “go into those areas in the cities that may have been ignored for too long, and say we think that we can win anywhere.”

“The voters in the most distressed areas of any city in the country, they want the same things that everyone does. They want to walk down the street without fear of their safety. They want their kids to get a good education. They want opportunities for job growth,” Moench said.

The gains Republicans made in 2024 showed them that there could be value in getting more involved in the urban areas rather than only using the cities as a foil.

In New York City, for instance, Trump had the best performance of any Republican presidential candidate since 1988, according to The New York Times.

“The reason that Republicans have a majority in the House right now is because of the urban swing and Trump's urban coattails,” argued Charles Fain Lehman, a fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute think tank and senior editor at the group’s publication, City Journal.

Trump’s takeover of the D.C. police force could also be instructive for red-state legislatures across the country as they increasingly battle with Democratic-run cities — reversing city policies or blocking them from taking effect, in a mechanism known as preemption. Kansas City, Mo., for instance, was blocked by the state Legislature from hiking its minimum wage. Lehman said there are opportunities in Texas where the state can preempt local policies on public camping and crime.

“There are places where the red state legislature could conceivably step in, and in some cases, has stepped in and say, ‘We don't like what you're doing here, and actually, the city is a creature of the state, and so we have final say in authority and what's going to happen here,’” Lehman said.

And if Trump is successful in bringing crime in D.C. down — and that’s a big if — that could be a high-profile demonstration of Republican policies that others could imitate in other urban centers.

But there are also risks for Republicans if Trump’s gambit is not successful. Renn pointed to former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R), who was accused of mishandling the Flint, Mich., water supply amid the city’s crisis of lead-contaminated water. Snyder was criminally charged in connection to the Flint water crisis, but the charges were later dismissed.

“If you are a highly incompetent urban leadership class, which all too many of them today are, they would love to be able to ... in some way pin the blame on a Republican,” Renn said.

Further reading: DC Police Union chair supports Trump takeover, from The Hill’s Elizabeth Crisp.

Welcome to The Movement, a weekly newsletter looking at the influences and debates on the right in Washington. I'm Emily Brooks, House leadership reporter at The Hill. Tell me what’s on your radar: ebrooks@thehill.com.

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PRASAD BACK AT FDA IN ABRUPT REVERSAL 

Readers of The Movement’s July 29 edition saw the conservative scrutiny and divide over Vinay Prasad, the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) chief medical and scientific officer and the director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. 

The Wall Street Journal’s opinion pages and right-wing provocateur Laura Loomer had taken aim at Prasad for being a former supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), for his recent rejection of a disease therapy, and skepticism of the “Right to Try” law that Trump signed in his first term and is intended to allow terminally ill patients wider access to drugs not yet approved by the FDA.

Later that day, Prasad was out — in a move met by outrage from MAHA types who have supported Prasad’s skepticism on COVID vaccine recommendations, with accusations running rampant that pharmaceutical companies had been working a behind-the-scenes campaign to remove him.

Less than two weeks later, Prasad is back at the FDA.

FDA Commissioner Marty Makary was among those who seemed to oppose Prasad’s ouster. 

“The idea that he was pushed out by anybody is simply untrue,” Makary said at a news conference last week. “He saw some media headlines and didn’t want to be a distraction. We have encouraged him to reconsider, and we’re still doing that.”

The Washington Post’s Lauren Weber and Rachel Roubein had this reporting on the behind-the-scenes action on Prasad’s return: “The White House reevaluated the criticisms of Prasad and supported his return to the administration after finding them disingenuous, according to two people familiar with the decision-making who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters. This followed FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, who championed and elevated Prasad, reaching out to the White House, one of the people said.”

Loomer, for her part, called Prasad’s reinstatement “another egregious personnel decision under the Trump administration,” promising to ramp up her “exposes” of officials in the FDA and Health and Human Services Department.

EPSTEIN FUROR FIZZLING OR SIMMERING?

CNN’s data guru Harry Enten says that based on his look at the data, the saga surrounding the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is turning into a “political dud & nothingburger.”

His points: Google search engine queries for Epstein are down 89 percent versus three weeks ago; Trump’s approval rating is holding; and almost no one in the most recent CNN poll says it’s the nation’s top political issue.

And in another blow to those who would like to see the issue in the news, U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer on Monday denied the Justice Department’s request to unseal grand jury materials used to charge Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime accomplice of Epstein.

But hold on to your hats. There is plenty of action on the congressional side coming up that will keep the Epstein saga chugging along.

For starters, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee issued many subpoenas for documents and testimony with deadlines coming up in the next few weeks. These dates could change, but the Justice Department is due to send over Epstein-related documents to the committee by Aug. 19. Subpoena dates are set for former Attorneys General Bill Barr, Alberto Gonzales and Jeff Sessions this month — with several other subpoenas scheduled for September and October.

And the Epstein legislative action that had roiled the House floor before the chamber departed for August recess is set to return with a bang as soon as Congress returns in September: Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who are co-sponsoring legislation to compel release of Epstein-related material and aim to force a vote on the matter, announced they will hold a press conference the day that Congress returns alongside “survivors of Epstein and Maxwell's abuse — several of whom will be speaking out for the first time.”

ON MY CALENDAR

• Thursday, Aug. 14: The Manhattan Institute hosts a conversation with New York City Mayor Eric Adams on “Governing in NYC.” Starts at 9:30 a.m. at the New York Hilton Midtown.
• Monday, Aug. 25, to Thursday, Aug. 28: State Policy Network annual meeting in New Orleans.

Email me to get your events featured here: ebrooks@thehill.com

THREE MORE THINGS

1. The first episode of the new podcast by Katie Miller — former aide in the Trump administration and to Elon Musk, and wife to Trump deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller — came out on Monday. She aims to be the conservative answer to “Call Her Daddy” that working moms can turn to, without being totally politics-focused. Her first podcast episode was with Vice President Vance, who said Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler would be the Cabinet official he’d trust most to babysit his kids.

2. The America First Policy Institute announced two staff additions as it aims to be the “preeminent force shaping the future of American education through bold, student-centered reforms.” Max Eden will be director of federal education policy; James Paul will be director of state education policy.

3. The Republican Study Committee, the largest conservative caucus in the House, released a tribute video to its architect and Heritage Foundation co-founder Ed Feulner featuring current Chair August Pfluger (R-Texas) and former chairs Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), Sen. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), and Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.). “You could argue Ed did more for the advancement of conservative thought than any person in this arena,” Johnson said.

WHAT I'M READING

• New York Times’s Caroline Kitchener: This Ohio Farm Community Is a Mecca for the ‘MAHA Mom’
• The American Spectator’s David Hogberg: DC May Be More Receptive to a Trump Takeover Than Many Assume
• CNN’s Steve Contorno and Adam Cancryn: Laura Loomer has the White House scrambling again — and she’s far from finished