Donald Trump's endorsement typically moves the needle in elections across the country. But his recent thumbs-up for Spencer Pratt in the Los Angeles mayoral race may have done the opposite in a city where the president remains deeply unpopular.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Trump called Pratt a "big Maga person" and expressed hope that the former reality TV star would succeed. "I'd like to see him do well. I don't know him. I assume he probably supports me," Trump said.
The statement immediately became ammunition for Democrats. Mayor Karen Bass, the frontrunner and a longtime congresswoman and community organizer, fired back within hours. "Both Trump and Pratt want ICE to invade our city and kidnap our neighbors. I stood up to ICE to protect our communities," she said. Councilwoman Nithya Raman, Pratt's other main opponent, framed the endorsement as evidence that Trump wants political influence in one of America's most progressive cities.
Pratt, best known as a villain on the reality show The Hills, has surged to second place in the race by channeling voter frustration over the city's slow wildfire recovery, housing costs, and homelessness crisis. But winning in Los Angeles requires shedding any whiff of Trumpism. The city has been a liberal stronghold for decades, and Trump's unpopularity intensified after immigration agents began detaining people in city streets last year, prompting mass protests and military deployment.
Zev Yaroslavsky, a UCLA political affairs director who spent nearly four decades in Los Angeles politics, laid out the problem plainly. "The most unpopular person in Los Angeles is Donald Trump. That's where Pratt has vulnerability."
Pratt has spent much of his campaign trying to thread a needle. He's a former Republican who obtained a concealed carry license years ago after receiving death threats during his television career. Yet he insists the race is nonpartisan and that his focus as mayor would be purely local: water, power, police, fire, potholes, and sidewalks. "That has nothing to do with national politics or who is in the White House," he told CNN this week.
The endorsement puts Pratt in an awkward position. While he cannot completely disown Republican support without alienating voters who powered his rise, embracing Trump's backing could prove fatal in a city where the president triggered street protests and martial law responses.
Author James Rodriguez: "Trump's instinct to back a candidate he perceives as loyal may have handed Democrats a gift they didn't expect to unwrap so neatly."
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