The reality TV star determined to forge a Trumpy path to elected office has been busted in the most Trumpy of moves: Telling a blatant untruth.
Spencer Pratt, a one-time heel in millennials’ favorite reality show, The Hills, is trying to depose the Democratic mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, running a campaign based on her allegedly incompetent handling of the fires which devastated the city in 2025.
In his campaign announcement, the 42-year-old slammed Mayor Karen Bass for letting his “home burn down.” He promised to calm the chaos—striking an emotional note in the process.
“This is where I live,” Pratt declared, spreading his arms in front of a silver Airstream.
But it turns out that Pratt isn’t living in a trailer at all, but instead at the Hotel Bel-Air, TMZ reported.
Pratt has been a guest at the hotel, where rooms cost up to $2,000 per night, for more than a month. His wife, fellow Hills alum Heidi Montag, is not in the Airstream either. She is residing with their two children in Santa Barbara, far outside of L.A.
Pratt defended his deception on Wednesday, weeks away from the June 2 election, by denying he had said exactly what he said.
“I have never told anyone I lived there,” he told TMZ of the trailer—despite proclaiming “This is where I live,” in his campaign video while motioning to the Airstream.
“That is where I live. That’s where Karen Bass, Mayor Bass, burnt down my house,” Pratt continued. “That is where I will live until I have a new house. The Airstream is a temporary facility. A hotel is a temporary facility. Where my kids are in Santa Barbara right now is a temporary housing—this is semantics."
Pratt did not respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment.
The Republicans’ trailer troubles come at an unfortunate time. Pratt’s campaign has gained momentum after the reality television star had a surprisingly strong debate against Bass last week.
“I actually thought that [Pratt] had a strong performance,” Mike Bonin, executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs, told TheWrap.
“I’m sure the debate organizers were worried, going in, about how the reality TV star bad boy would behave. Would he keep interrupting? But he came across as serious and passionate and funny at times.”
Before that, Pratt—whose latest professional experience includes a stint as Mr. Snow Cone on the The Masked Singer’s latest season—was an outsider in the race, much like Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.
In fact, sources told veteran gossip journalist Rob Shuter that Pratt “studies Trump,” including his rally speeches and old episodes of The Apprentice.
“If one reality star became president,” one source told Shuter, “Spencer honestly thinks another one can become mayor.”
Though America’s second-largest city hasn’t seen a Republican mayor since 2001, Pratt is publicly confident in his ability to change that. He’s also justified his transformation from bad boy to politician with more claims about his Airstream.
“People know when I was a reality villain, I was doing it to get paid. It was strategic. I was working with producers,” he told CBS News. “I’m being very strategic to win and save L.A., but there’s no strategy when you’re standing in an Airstream on your burned out town. You can’t fake that.”
