From Hollywood to the Smithsonian Institute’s museums, the Left has dominated arts and culture for years, leading many conservatives to abandon these critical institutions altogether. One couple, however, is working to reclaim conservatism’s cultural influence—starting in the nation’s capital.
The couple met in 2007 at Citizens United, a non-profit organization, while working on “Hillary: The Movie,” the film at the center of the landmark Supreme Court decision Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission. Matt Taylor was the person hired to make the film, while Michelle Taylor was already with the organization working on marketing and donations.
But for the last couple of years, Matt has stepped away from the world of film to help shape the Trump Administration’s agenda on arts and culture. Matt now serves as a senior advisor at the National Endowment for the Humanities with the Trump Administration, and is also an appointee to the Commission of the Fine Arts.
In this role, Matt has helped spearhead one of President Donald Trump’s signature objectives: making Washington, D.C. beautiful again.
In March 2025, the Trump administration launched the Make D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force. Its priorities have been simple: officials have turned the city’s fountains back on, cleaned up graffiti, cleaned the nation’s monuments, and began actually policing crime.
The point, as Interior Secretary Doug Burgum put it, was blunt: decline in America’s cities is a choice.
Matt’s piece of this project is the part you can actually walk through. Freedom Plaza, for example, had sat empty and filthy, with the fountain off for 17 years. He designed the Spirit of ’76 installation at Freedom Plaza, including the restored César Rodney statue and multiple citizen soldiers.
“I made all the statues there—21 statues. And I resurrected a César Rodney statue that is currently sitting two blocks from the White House and Freedom Plaza,” Matt Taylor said. “That plaza had been deserted and it just was dirty and hadn’t been kept in.”
He talks about D.C. the way people who lived in New York City in the 90s talk about the Big Apple before former Mayor Rudy Giuliani turned the city around.
“It’s like a broken windows idea, but with aesthetics, because broken windows has a lot to do with aesthetics,” Matt explained.. “The beautification work is critical to, first of all, projecting control of the space for safety. And safety is good for creating commerce and letting people who live here do their job the right way. Which is what we want them to do because they work in the government.”
Matt said this agenda is personal for him, as well.
“We live in the city,” Matt said. “I want my wife to be able to walk to the Metro and be safe, and not just be safe, but I want everything to be clean and nice. It’s not just the safety of someone coming up to you. But it’s also the fear when you see everything messy and dirty.”
Michelle said it’s unfortunate that simply stating they want a city like Washington, D.C. to be safe and clean now reads like a partisan talking point. It shouldn’t be political, she said.
“Sadly, living in a beautiful city is now a political issue. From the beginning you’ve always had downtowns that are a little bit more dangerous than even cities,” she told IW Features. “But I think people have a fundamental right to believe that they are safe and to live in a safe community and feel safe on their person, no matter where you live.”
“That’s … why most people fled to the suburbs and why America spread out as much as it did with the cars — they wanted to get away from the dangerous inner cities to live somewhere else and raise a family in a way that they can,” she added. “I think that you’ve always had the right to expect to be able to do that in a city as well. So now that that’s actually happening, sadly it’s become politicized.”
Most people she knows who took jobs in Washington, D.C. in the last year have chosen to live in Virginia for that reason, she said.
“Once we clean that up, we hope that we can give that kind of lifestyle back to people who choose to want it and to have it,” Michelle said. “I think D.C. is kind of ground zero for what can be done. New York did it the first time under Giuliani, and then [former Mayor Michael] Bloomberg. D.C. is showing it can be done. I hope it’s an example for future city leaders. And I hope it’s an example for people that want to live in the cities down the road to demand a beautiful, safe environment that they can be happy in.”
Matt, however, said the beautification projects aren’t just for city residents, but for every American who deserves a capital city worth visiting.
“Every eighth grader ever is going to come to Washington, D.C.,” he said. “They need to walk away from Washington understanding American exceptionalism and how great we are.”
Michelle added: “I want them to know that that is their space too. And they do belong there,” she said. “It just comes down to the people that they choose to lead those cities.”
And if there’s one lesson Matt and Michelle Taylor hope people will take from their work in Washington, D.C., it’s this: “We want people to walk away from there feeling inspired that an ordinary citizen can do extraordinary things,” Matt said.
