Trump invented reality tv politics — Spencer Pratt's spinoff reaches a whole new level
He could win. That has national implications for candidates in the future.
I already know exactly who from my high school will be voting for Spencer Pratt.
When I wrote ^ that, I intended it to be kinda derogatory. But as I dig deeper into the Los Angeles mayoral race, I can’t help but notice the script feels plagiarized from an even more popular show we’ve already seen. And before you say, “Grace … that’s impossible — ‘The Hills’ was unscripted,” let me show you what I mean.
Among the first things I learned in this deep dive was not to assume you all have the misfortune of knowing who Spencer Pratt is. (Reminders like this are one of the benefits of having a boyfriend who is simply illiterate when it comes to low-brow pop culture … and better off for it.) Spencer, one half of villainous reality TV couple “Speidi,” has spent 20+ years stirring pots and staging stunts to remain in the public eye.
Being baptized by the ruthless and relentless coverage of early aughts tabloid journalism gave Spencer Pratt (fuck it, I’ll tag him) the tactical skills to know how to identify a narrative, reroute its focus, and — if he played his cards right (which, for years, he did not) — win some real sympathy.
The “baptized by fire” mantra he repeated frequently in the aftermath of last year’s wildfires became the centerpiece of his campaign for mayor of LA. Before the smoke had cleared from the hellacious wildfires that leveled whole neighborhoods in my home city, Spencer Pratt’s name and content were already circulating in my groupchats.
To his credit, he put a face and voice to the pain so many people felt crushed by. And in true, chaotic Spencer Pratt fashion, we got a side of laughter, compliments of the chef. The tens, if not hundreds, of millions of views across social media since that first week in January 2025, felt like somewhat of a Prattaissance:
Remaining true to the antics that define his public character (running a social campaign to take his wife Heidi’s 2010 album from flop to top of the charts to raise money after they lost their home)
Distancing himself from the near-constant stream of embarrassing missteps in their past (the crystal business … bad)
Taking his new captured audience, motivated by visceral anger, and making what’s become the defining move of the 2020s: pivoting to politics
The real third-eye-open power-trippers are always going to come to the conclusion that real influence comes by controlling lives, not cultivating likes. Donald Trump did vanity politics first. Spencer Pratt might be doing it better. Or … worse.
Grace Note: Trying out a Friday morning post! Would love to hear your thoughts ❣️
ON THE SURFACE
Two words: Media Fluency. Level of importance: Non-Negotiable.
Who Broke It is a project dedicated to covering political content, and that includes candidates’ meaningful attempts to get better at digital comms in this new creator culture era. The difference between a candidate that feels dated (regardless of age) and one that feels fresh, is how agile they are in moving between the digital and analog worlds.
The poll taken after the recent LA mayoral debate showed 88% of viewers thought Spencer Pratt won. He is a showman and a debate is a performance. His goal wasn’t to share a vision of governance under his rule, it was to:
not look like a total idiot (which he’s not)
produce defined moments to be clipped and repurposed across his socials
Two debate clips have 3.4M views on IG between them. A meme of another clip (feat. Khloé Kardashian) has another mill. That’s a recipe for modern success in campaign media.
Now, imagine you take that strategy and actually add coherent, clear policy behind it — that’s how you convert viral to votes, à la Zohran Mamdani.
Two words: Brand Identity. Level of importance: Non-negotiable.
Without hearing — just seeing — could you tell it’s a Spencer Pratt video? Yes, and that’s as much because of the B&W filters he’s using for serious videos as it is about the hideous AI he’s relying on for his most recent campaign ads. I continue to believe that AI turns more people off than on, and we’ll get to see that take tested in the June 2 primary.
What takes a campaign’s visuals from good to great?
The brand identifiers should make people nostalgic for a city they used to know and proud of the city they already have. Prattifying Dodgers and Lakers logos (hats above) helps insert his name into the pre-approved, deeply-loved cultural architecture of the city.
Familiarity — and the innate trust that comes along with it — is the leg up a reality star candidate will always have in a crowded primary. It’s “the devil you know” politics. The tighter he ties his name and brand to LA’s as a whole, the more he projects a sense of inevitability onto voters, whether they realize it or not.
UNDER THE HOOD
When he’s not talking about his opponent, the current mayor he inaffectionately calls Karen Basuuuura, he’s sharing graphic images and locations, shared with him via DM, of the illicit activity, violence, and squalor that LA has struggled to manage for years.
On one hand: I think it’s good to explicitly publicize the parts of government that are failing — this video has 5M views, for example. Americans, as a whole, are sick of feeling like problems are swept under the rug and kept out of sight just to protect long-time office holders from potential embarrassment. The next phase of American politics is 100% going to be based on exposure that forces accountability.
Spencer Pratt deeply understands that shining a light on failure is enough to get you elected, even if you have no concrete plans on how to turn that failure into success.
On the other hand: Going all in on what I call “vanity politics” is a strategy for campaigns, not governance. The Trump administration, whether they know it or not, is reeling from the impact of this misalignment as we speak. Painting the bottom of the reflection pool blue? Cool. How do I pay for my groceries?
This kind of shit is all over Spencer’s campaign website. One of the main headlines says his goal is “ensuring that Los Angeles is once again ‘camera-ready’ for all its citizens.” A couple paragraphs later, again: “He will launch an operational surge to restore a camera-ready Los Angeles.”1 What can a city that looks pretty but is functionally kneecapped actually do for its citizens?
Especially as it gears up to host a “car-free” Olympics in 2028. The Los Angeles municipal government, it’s $13B budget, and 50,000+ person workforce has a chance to beat the allegations that looks are always the “best and final” offer in any transaction. Spencer Pratt — with his pitches to put up signs (?) to rein in homeless chaos — is hoping to re-enforce and re-activate the city’s ruling philosophy of beauty over brains.
WHAT’S INSIDE
I mean, there’s so much mess to sift through, I’m just not gonna do it all here. One story kind of represents it all: On April 29, he posted an ad to social media showing a silver Airstream trailer on his empty, firetorched property in Pacific Palisades. He announced: “This is where I live.” TMZ, doing what they do best, shared a report that he has actually been staying at the $1,200+ per night Hotel Bel-Air.
Spencer graduated summa cum laude from the Donald Trump School of Picking Up the Phone and Calling Your Bitch Assology. He dialed in to TMZ’s live show for seven minutes to (sort of, not really at all) correct the record.
➡️ He took the “I’m doing you a favor calling you live, so don’t piss me off” approach.
➡️ He deployed the Donald Deflection expertly: “I don’t live anywhere, they burned down my house.”
➡️ And finally, he took the expert-level vanity politics killshot: “Keep posting me, please use better photos.”
THE BIGGER PICTURE
I wish I could tell my 11-year-old self trying to sneak-watch episodes of “The Hills” when my mom wasn’t home that I’d be writing a newsletter to thousands of people suggesting the future of the American political system relies on what happens when Spencer Pratt runs for mayor. If she knew this fate, she might have needed the weapons-grade anti-anxiety meds far sooner.
But to some degree, I don’t feel like that’s being over-dramatic. We are running back two exact tests from the 2024 election.
The first is a female, legacy politician trying to appeal to voters by swearing things have actually gotten better, even if we all don’t feel it. That message doesn’t sell when a brazen, insurgent loudmouth man keeps a finger pointed right at her every day of the campaign.
The second is something we’ll have to keep watching over time, though this run could tell us a lot. The biggest celebrities in the world coalescing around Kamala Harris ultimately meant nothing in the voting booth. Spencer has assembled a truly impressive battalion of reality stars from every franchise you can think of.2
Will that convert votes in a city that runs on reputation, relationships, and Runyon Canyon? Spencer’s own sister prays it doesn’t.
MUST-SEE CONTENT YOU MISSED THIS WEEK
Starting with a post that had me doubled over laughing:
Right:
Who Wore It Better?: Marco Rubio stole the Nike tech look Nicolás Maduro sported for his involuntary abduction back in January. Rubio claims he had nooo idea it was the same fit — kinda hard to believe when WH Comms Director Steven Cheung posted a posed pic of Sec. Rubio with the caption “rocking the Nike Tech ‘Venezuela’ on Air Force One! 😂”
Substack Gets Loomered, Again: Laura Loomer hit the rising U.S. Politics chart at #42 with the debut of her new newsletter “The Loomer Rumor,” providing her audience of 90,000 subs with her most “time and resource intensive” offering yet.
All the usual ranting and raving aside, it was this particularly egregious insinuation that caught my eye: Loomer suggests that Rep. Sara Jacobs’ boyfriend, an American Obama admin alum who is half-Palestinian, might stage a terrorist attack on the LA Olympics. “Just saying…”
Left:
Walk, Chew Gum: Idk what it will take to take for the top brass at the DNC to realize this 2024 autopsy drama is not going anywhere. Former DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison posted that he “would love a report” but the party can’t draw focus away from the current disenfranchisement of Black voters in the South. Former DNC exec Patrick Gaspard jumped in to say it “ain’t hard” to focus on both.
A Real Post-Mortem: Harry Sisson logged all of Trump’s 55 posts — with timestamps — from the wee hours of Monday night into Tuesday morning, most of which focus on Clinton-Obama-Biden-related grievances of the past. How fun!
Lawmakers:
Call 1-(800)-Sec-Hegs: So I guess the Dept. of War is resorting to green screen propaganda videos to try to sell Americans on adding $1.5T to the agency’s budget. This spot, hosted by Pete Hegseth, has all the energy of a personal injury attorney ad that you’d see at 2 a.m. I think it might be the worst video I’ve ever seen. The graphic choices and line readings are just … inexplicable.
An All-Kash Bar: Sen. Chris Van Hollen and Kash Patel are having a prolonged war of words over drinking. What started in a congressional hearing has spilled over onto social media. Patel is hounding CVH over margaritas placed on the table during a visit to El Salvador and a $7,000 campaign open bar tab. Van Hollen is waiting for Patel to provide a filled out Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (lol) to compare to his own clean bill.
Culture:
Beary Cute: All the trad-ish MAGA girlies are gagging over the Ralph Lauren USPS collaboration stamps. Daily Wire’s Isabel Brown called the collab “literally the greatest thing I’ve ever seen.” NY icon Ralph Lifshitz can do no wrong in my book, so I have to agree.
Check the Scouting Report: After taking some time off controversy, the NBA’s conspiracy trailblazer has waded back into the political convo. Dallas’ Kyrie Irving asked: “Out of all of our Federal Government officials, Who can I trust?” Would it surprise you to hear that users dropped Thomas Massie’s name more than anyone?
He Kahan Do It:Exposing myself here: I have never heard a Noah Kahan song, but this interview with “Rolling Stone” is enough to make a fan out of me. I know he writes and sings a lot about depression and mental health but like … so what? A $6.5M “so what” so far. He’s raising money to fund therapy programs, but his “biggest aspiration” is to get all Vermonters “cheap, if not free,” healthcare.
LOOSE ENDS
📰 Something you should read today: The 15 States where Democrats can go on the redistricting offensive — Steve Morris, The Long Run
🥹 Something to make you smile today: The room I’m calling my office is finally almost finished. I haven’t had a sanctuary of my own in quite some time, I put extra care into making it bright and cozy but not too cozy, bc I have to work. Tada!
Also in the same section of his website as the “camera-ready” focus is this: “Spencer believes effective crisis leadership requires decisive action, operational discipline, and a commitment to protecting lives and property, not photo ops or bureaucratic delays and excuses.” I’m confused!
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