Why Is Trump Consistently S**tting On Cities? Political Scientists Have A Principle

[ad_1] <img alt="“The cities are rotting and they are indeed cesspools of blood,” President Donald Trump said while running for office. Why all the hate?" loading="lazy" width="630" height="354" decoding="async" data-nimg="1" class="rounded-lg" style="color:transparent" src="https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/ypeT218N_YkUr5xPC6kElw--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTEyNDI7aD02OTg7Y2Y9d2VicA--/https://media.zenfs.com/en/the_huffington_post_584/77bd63ebe4800ea756d98f376a926e4f"/> “The cities are rotting and they're certainly cesspools of blood,” President Donald Trump mentioned whereas operating for workplace. Why all of the hate? Illustration: HuffPost; Pictures: Getty

President Donald Trump seems to have it out for American cities.

In each one in all his presidential runs, he described life in them as if it had been one thing out of an Nineteen Eighties horror film: “The cities are rotting and they're certainly cesspools of blood,” he mentioned in 2022, whereas asserting his most up-to-date marketing campaign. (Although he added, “We're going to go and assist them, even when they don’t need the assistance.” How magnanimous!)

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This wasn’t simply unfastened marketing campaign discuss. Lately, whereas making deceptive claims about rampant crime in Washington, D.C. (regardless of what he mentioned, it’s truly down), Trump steered he may use the authority of the presidency to carry out a federal “takeover” of main cities just like the nation’s capital and New York Metropolis. (He could also be from there, however he isn't a fan.) And most just lately, he threatened Chicago.

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Different American cities, which are inclined to lean left and are sometimes house to giant immigrant populations, have gotten failing grades from the president, too: Chicago is “worse than Afghanistan.” Atlanta is a veritable “killing subject.” Various California cities are “warfare zones and ganglands.” D.C. itself he’s beforehand known as a “rat-infested, graffiti-infested shithole.” (Dramatic, however to be sincere, he sounds type of much like Founding Father Thomas Jefferson, who as soon as known as cities “pestilential to the morals, the well being, and the liberties of man.”)

The statements are worlds other than how Trump describes the “stunning” cities in pink states, the place voters extra reliably vote for him. In a stump speech final October, he bunched up “Indiana and Iowa and Idaho” as a collective and known as them “states that you just don’t hear an excessive amount of of as a result of they’re so good and so nicely run.”

His administration’s mass-deportation initiative has largely focused Democratic-run cities; ICE has but to achieve extra Trump-friendly industries in Trump-friendly elements of the nation.

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Deeply blue Los Angeles is a specific fixation for the White Home, with some questioning if it’s as a result of deputy chief of employees Stephen Miller is from the area. Final month, when Nationwide Guard troops had been deployed to L.A. throughout ICE raids, Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem mentioned the Feds had been coming to “liberate” Los Angeles “from the socialists and the burdensome management.” (The Trump administration has additionally signaled that it may ship the army to much more American cities.)

Had you by no means visited a metropolis and acquired into Trump’s anti-city screeds, you would possibly determine that criminals roam the streets and that protests (or riots, relying on what mild they’re solid in) are a menace to you, regardless of what number of miles away you reside.

Nevertheless, 80% of People stay in or round a metropolis. Urbanites are simply as American as anybody who lives within the countryside, and what’s extra, cities drive financial development for everybody. All of us profit when cities prosper. So what’s the take care of conservatives maligning cities so laborious? Is that basically politically good? For solutions, we requested political science professors who specialize within the politics of polarization.

<img alt="Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem joins the ICE operation as she accompanies numerous federal agents raiding a home in Huntington Park in Los Angeles, California, on June 13, 2025. In a presser, Noem said the Feds were coming to “liberate” L.A. “from the socialists and the burdensome leadership.”" loading="lazy" width="630" height="420" decoding="async" data-nimg="1" class="rounded-lg" style="color:transparent" src="https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/5vYI99ZDiQhp7ARC4b.ovw--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTY0MDtjZj13ZWJw/https://media.zenfs.com/en/the_huffington_post_584/1c7dfdee161a403934b5b6b91fd50b67"/> Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem joins the ICE operation as she accompanies quite a few federal brokers raiding a house in Huntington Park in Los Angeles, California, on June 13, 2025. In a presser, Noem mentioned the Feds had been coming to “liberate” L.A. “from the socialists and the burdensome management.” Anadolu by way of Getty Photographs

Disparaging cities is big-time fodder for a cultural warfare that energizes voters. The tendency to divide the world into “us” and “them” is deeply ingrained within the human psyche. Republicans have mined that for all that it’s price, and such rhetoric reached apogee underneath Trump, mentioned Jonathan Weiler, a professor of world research on the College of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

“On this case, the ‘us’ are good, hardworking, ‘actual’ People, as Sarah Palin put it, who consider in an America that was rooted in conventional household constructions, respect for authority and secure, healthful communities,” Weiler mentioned.

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The “them,” he mentioned, “are the forces of cultural chaos, ‘ethical decay,’ engaged in a nefarious plot to undermine the healthful America conservatives have lengthy presupposed to advocate for.”

In fact, such tropes and anti-urban bias are nothing new. Within the Nineteen Seventies and ’80s, Jerry Falwell’s Ethical Majority engaged in the same city-bashing politics as a result of it performed so successfully with the televangelist’s viewers, Weiler famous.

Trump’s anti-city fixation has parallels to earlier Republicans, like Richard Nixon and George Bush, who in 1988 used internal metropolis crime to draw voters who in any other case may need voted Democratic.

Yphtach Lelkes, an affiliate professor on the Annenberg Faculty for Communication on the College of Pennsylvania, mentioned that framing cities as harmful does greater than increase issues about crime; it alerts that these locations are morally and culturally completely different, even alien from small-town America.

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“It tells rural and suburban voters that cities aren’t simply distant, they’re run by individuals who don’t share their values,” mentioned Lelkes, who co-directs the Polarization Analysis Lab, which appears to be like at affective polarization, social belief, and political violence

“That notion fuels anger, disgust, and worry ― feelings which might be highly effective political motivators,” he mentioned. “These emotions can mobilize voters, enhance assist for tough-on-crime or authoritarian insurance policies, and create a powerful sense of political urgency.”

<img alt="A subway train moves on July 10, 2025, in Queens, New York City ― a city often maligned by Trump." loading="lazy" width="630" height="343" decoding="async" data-nimg="1" class="rounded-lg" style="color:transparent" src="https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/PkSTEus066W5RX6hZYorgw--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTUyMztjZj13ZWJw/https://media.zenfs.com/en/the_huffington_post_584/a1916c36dbfe7037bf4f54ccc57ec88c"/> A subway practice strikes on July 10, 2025, in Queens, New York Metropolis ― a metropolis typically maligned by Trump. Anadolu by way of Getty Photographs

It’s a message largely directed at suburbanites. When Trump lambasts Los Angeles or Detroit, he’s not chatting with the folks in these cities who detest him and even on to his rural base (although all the higher if the bottom is revved up). It’s truly suburbanites he’s hoping to hook, mentioned Kal Munis, an assistant professor of political science at Auburn College in Alabama.

“The suburbs are composed of individuals, each who moved to them as a way to be nearer to the town ― former rural and small city of us ― and people who moved to them as a way to distance themselves from city cores,” he informed HuffPost.

“It’s this latter class who his message resonates with, since once more, many of those folks already consciously selected to maneuver out of the town, for numerous causes, with the literature suggesting crime is usually a number one consideration for such strikes.”

<img alt="A lot of anti-city talk is directed to suburbanites, said political scientist Kal Munis, since many of these people already consciously chose to move out of the city." loading="lazy" width="630" height="472" decoding="async" data-nimg="1" class="rounded-lg" style="color:transparent" src="https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/A9W55MAHaAtU.xK6SS__lw--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTcxOTtjZj13ZWJw/https://media.zenfs.com/en/the_huffington_post_584/4714c3369ad9be621e079eb9083a338f"/> A variety of anti-city discuss is directed to suburbanites, mentioned political scientist Kal Munis, since many of those folks already consciously selected to maneuver out of the town. Michael Warren by way of Getty Photographs

Race is unquestionably part of it, however there’s extra to it. Some have steered that as a result of cities are ethnically numerous, “internal cities” is a covert option to speak about race: There’s an extended historical past in American politics of utilizing phrases like “internal metropolis” as coded language to evoke racial anxieties with out explicitly mentioning race, Lelkes mentioned.

In the present day’s metropolis symbolism goes past that.

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Whereas race performs a job, what’s typically going unsaid is a broader rejection of the values cities signify within the fashionable U.S.: variety, progressivism, intellectualism, and dissent.

“It’s a tradition warfare packaged in geography,” Lelkes mentioned.

Under no circumstances is everybody who responds to “metropolis v. nation” rhetoric racist. Many are simply drawn to candidates who promise to revive order and predictability to what seems like a chaotic and altering world.

Nonetheless, that doesn’t imply they'll’t be persuaded by “demagogues who visitors in racism and assume {that a} heavy hand is critical to make them really feel secure once more.” Lelkes mentioned.

<img alt="Just like the state’s cities, California Gov. Gavin Newsom is a frequent target of Trump. Here, they meet at Los Angeles International Airport in January during Trump’s visit to the Los Angeles region, which had been devastated by the Palisades and Eaton fires." loading="lazy" width="630" height="417" decoding="async" data-nimg="1" class="rounded-lg" style="color:transparent" src="https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/tATrxMXqMpaBtbLDJXgESQ--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTYzNTtjZj13ZWJw/https://media.zenfs.com/en/the_huffington_post_584/f189b420d9501066f1299c36f7af0f53"/> Similar to the state’s cities, California Gov. Gavin Newsom is a frequent goal of Trump. Right here, they meet at Los Angeles Worldwide Airport in January throughout Trump’s go to to the Los Angeles area, which had been devastated by the Palisades and Eaton fires. MANDEL NGAN by way of Getty Photographs

There are parallels to how authoritarian and fascist actions denigrated metropolis life. Lelkes mentioned there’s additionally a deeper narrative at work ― one with echoes of authoritarian and fascist actions which have traditionally elevated rural life as pure, conventional, and virtuous, whereas casting cities as corrupt, elite and morally decaying.

“That storyline simplifies the political panorama: cities develop into not simply completely different, however harmful; not simply liberal, however illegitimate,” he mentioned. “It helps remodel political opponents into cultural enemies.”

A society can harbor and nurture among the parts of fascism with out changing into fascist, Weiler famous.

The rightwing populism of Trump (or of Marine Le Pen in France, Viktor Orbán in Hungary, or the AfD in Germany) is “equally characterised by the sorts of us versus them politics, together with a demonization of sure sorts of elites, particularly in academia, the media and the regulation and ethnocentrism that's particularly centered on immigration,” he mentioned.

<img alt="A pro-Palestinian protester holds a Palestinian flag in a demonstration at the University of California Los Angeles on May 23, 2024 in Los Angeles -- a city President Trump has spoken ill of a number of times. " loading="lazy" width="630" height="420" decoding="async" data-nimg="1" class="rounded-lg" style="color:transparent" src="https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/Jhttr0zsY6n2yvyCgv80Cw--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTY0MDtjZj13ZWJw/https://media.zenfs.com/en/the_huffington_post_584/ec625284d091e81af277f47a76c9725b"/> A professional-Palestinian protester holds a Palestinian flag in an indication on the College of California Los Angeles on Might 23, 2024 in Los Angeles -- a metropolis President Trump has spoken in poor health of numerous instances. VCG by way of Getty Photographs

Republicans will maintain doing it as a result of they don’t essentially want voters in America’s cities. As economist Richard McGahey notes in his e-book, “Unequal Cities: Overcoming Anti-City Bias to Scale back Inequality in the US,” when the U.S. was based, it was a rural nation, and as such, many founding paperwork are brazenly hostile to cities. (With guys like aforementioned metropolis hater Jefferson partly operating the present, no shock.)

“The hostility in direction of cities will get constructed into the electoral faculty,” McGahey mentioned in 2023.

Opponents of the Electoral School argue that rural states maintain vastly disproportionate electoral energy: Although city and suburban areas comprise the vast majority of the inhabitants, their political affect is diluted by malapportionment within the Senate and gerrymandering within the Home and state legislatures, Lelkes defined.

“A rural vote can carry extra weight than an city one,” he mentioned. “That permits conservative politicians to win majorities whereas explicitly operating towards cities —and the values, demographics, and insurance policies they signify.”

On this context, disparaging cities isn’t simply symbolic — it’s strategic.

“It energizes the agricultural and exurban base with out a lot political price, as a result of these city voters are already packed into districts that received’t change the electoral math,” Lelkes mentioned.

Whether or not conservatives will ultimately want to start out courting metropolis dwellers will depend on how the political geography shifts, he mentioned.

“Suburbs are already changing into extra numerous and extra contested, particularly in swing states. If these areas proceed trending Democratic, Republicans might must average their anti-urban messaging to remain aggressive,” he mentioned. “However so long as the present system rewards geographic dispersion, there’s nonetheless a powerful incentive to maintain operating towards the town ― even when the town represents the bulk.”