President Donald Trump told reporters on Wednesday that he would "like to see" Spencer Pratt "do well," calling the former reality star "a big MAGA person." With that one off-the-cuff remark, a race that had been a largely local fight ahead of Los Angeles’s June 2 nonpartisan primary suddenly found itself dragged into the national spotlight.
Mayor Karen Bass’s re-election team and Councilmember Nithya Raman wasted little time turning the president’s words into a political weapon, arguing that they showed Pratt was aligned with a hard-right agenda. As reported by ABC7, a Bass spokesman charged that "both Trump and Pratt" want "ICE to invade our city and kidnap our neighbors," while Raman posted on X that "it’s no surprise Donald Trump supports his LA apprentice and ‘Big MAGA person’ Spencer Pratt."
Where Trump Spoke And Why It Matters In L.A.
The president made his comments during a brief exchange with reporters at Joint Base Andrews while attending a U.S. Coast Guard Academy commencement, and he stopped short of issuing a formal endorsement, according to the Los Angeles Times. That nuance carries weight in a city where Republicans are a small minority: even a friendly nod from Trump can juice conservative turnout while pushing away the broad Democratic coalition Pratt would likely need to have a shot at City Hall.
Pratt’s Populist Pitch, His Numbers And His Spotlight
Pratt, a former reality-TV personality who lost his Pacific Palisades home in last year’s wildfire, has leaned into a populist, law-and-order message that has spawned viral AI-driven ads and quick name recognition, as detailed by The Washington Post. An Emerson College poll taken after the May debate put Bass at about 30%, Pratt near 22% and Nithya Raman around 19%, as reported by The Guardian, and his gritty new video that torches L.A. power brokers has helped define the campaign’s aggressive ad tactics.
Strategists say Trump’s remark is a double-edged sword that can lock in a conservative base while also branding Pratt in a way that makes crossover appeal tougher. Dan Schnur, a political communications lecturer at USC and UC Berkeley, told ABC7 that the president’s nod "makes it more difficult for Pratt to reach beyond a Republican conservative base."
Pratt’s campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment after Trump’s comments, the Los Angeles Times reported. His team has been working the city’s neighborhoods, including a recent block party in South Los Angeles, as Pratt leans into a message of frustration with city leadership and emergency response while hoping the national attention translates into local votes rather than backlash.
