Ex-reality TV star Spencer Pratt is ‘running Trump’s playbook’ in LA mayoral race – Press Review

There is much focus on the LA mayoral race, which is heating up ahead of the vote next month. Los Angeles Magazine reminds us that Democrat Karen Bass became the first female mayor of LA when she was elected in 2022. She is hoping to be re-elected in the June 2 first round. The mayoral race has become one of the “weirdest ever” – with no less than 13 hopefuls competing in a race which the incumbent usually wins quite easily. There are four notable candidates: council member and former ally Nithya Raman, businessman Adam Miller, progressive housing advocate Reverend Rae Huang and reality TV personality Spencer Pratt, all of whom are profiled by the magazine. 

The Los Angeles Times says the stiff competition could be explained by the fact that a lot has happened in the city – devastating fires in 2025, ICE raids and a $1 billion city budget deficit. Furthermore, the next mayor will also have to steer the city through the 2028 Olympics. One of the frontrunners is Spencer Pratt, a reality TV villain-turned-Trump-endorsed Republican candidate. The Times recalls that he lost his home in the Palisades fire and is using, it says, his Hollywood savvy, social media skills and innate rage to emerge as an unexpected and polarising contender. He has outpaced his rivals in fundraising and put in assured debate performances. He is also vitriolic: he has depicted the streets of LA as a “dystopian hellscape menaced by drug addicted zombies”.

According to Time Magazine, it is very unlikely that any candidate will win the mayorship in the first round. It is most likely that the top two finishers will face a runoff in November during the midterms, when California will also be deciding a host of congressional races and voting on Governor Gavin Newsom‘s replacement. If Pratt does become mayor, he would be the first Republican mayor of the city since the 1990s.

Elsewhere, the Guardian reports that the much-criticised Enhanced Games will see 42 athletes competing this Sunday at a specially built arena in Las Vegas. There will be swimming, track and field, weightlifting and strongman events in a doping free-for-all event. Athletes are allowed to take performance-enhancing drugs that are normally outlawed from competition and importantly, outlawed by the World Anti-Doping Agency. The prize money is lucrative, too: $250,000 per sport for winners, an extra $250,000 if they break a world record and $1 million for the winners of the 50m freestyle and 100m sprint events. The Guardian interviews Christian Anger­mayer, the colourful German bil­lion­aire behind the Enhanced Games. He made his fortune in biotech and bitcoin and is now looking to venture into sports. The Games have been described as pioneering a new era in athletic competition that embraces science to push the boundaries of human performance.

Finally, a satirical Indian political party has gone viral. The Cockroach People’s Party began as a satirical online project after India‘s chief justice minister compared unemployed youth to cockroaches. But the Guardian notes that CPP has now become a real party in India. Its founder, Abhijeet Dipke, is a political communications student at Boston University. He says he did not intend for his party to become so popular – it was merely set up to reflect mounting frustration among young Indians. 

The Telegraph India notes that the party’s X account was blocked in India on Thursday – hours later, a new account was launched with the handle #cockroachisback. They may be a parody party, but they now have a logo, a slogan, an icon (and what an icon – the cockroach – notoriously resistant to everything). Moreover, they have nearly 14 million social media followers – that’s more than Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s party!

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