Donald Trump urged his followers to ‘watch closely’ and called the California elections system ‘CROOKED’ as Spencer Pratt fell to third place in the Los Angeles mayoral primary.
The Hills star had seen his lead on socialist Nithya Raman shrink over the weekend during his quest to face incumbent Karen Bass for a runoff in November. Trump has made repeated allegations of election fraud.
‘Has anybody been watching the CROOKED Election going on in California,’ the President wrote on Truth Social Sunday night.
‘Two great Republican Candidates are being cheated, and so is America, which if the Dumocrats are able to fulfill their mission, great trouble and consternation will follow. Watch this “Election” closely!!!’
Trump was referring to Pratt and gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton, who remains solidly in second in his primary.
As of Sunday night’s ballot drop in California, Raman has now overtaken Pratt for second place by 3,000 votes.
Pratt expressed his frustrations with the lengthy vote count process in a social media post earlier on Sunday.
‘Remember everyone…we are still in the lead, and we’ve got allllllll the way til July 6th to keep counting,’ he wrote, captioning a photo of Raman crying on election night.
‘They’re not the only ones who know where to find votes.’
Donald Trump called the California elections system ‘CROOKED’ as Spencer Pratt fell to third place in the Los Angeles mayoral primary election while socialist Nithya Raman surged into second
Pratt fell to third place in the Los Angeles mayoral primary election as socialist candidate Nithya Raman surged into second
He then suggested the number of votes added to Raman’s tally since Tuesday matched the number of homeless people in LA.
‘”A net swing of more than 43,000 votes since Tuesday..” 43,000, huh?’ Pratt mused.
‘Where have I seen that number before…? Probably nothing,’ he wrote, quoting an article that said there were 43,699 people who experience homelessness in LA.
Bass retains her lead over the two challengers with 34.7 percent after 83 percent of the ballots were counted.
Raman is now in second place with 27.1 percent of the vote, with Pratt trailing in third with 26.7 percent.
Bass made clear she had already turned her attention on her probable new opponent, the socialist Raman.
‘We look forward to winning a contest against an opponent who allows encampments near schools and fights against hiring more cops, yet is MIA on saving Hollywood jobs and fighting back when ICE invades LA,’ a campaign spokesperson for Bass said.
The Department of Justice has sent one of its attorneys to the city to observe the ballot counting process, as Trump has claimed fraud as two races have yet to be called.
As of Sunday night’s ballot drop in California, Raman (pictured) has now overtaken Pratt for second place by 3,000 votes and is now favored to win
Since Election Day, Trump has claimed that the Democrats are cheating as the count has continued.
‘Watch California, everybody!’ the President posted to Truth Social Thursday night. ‘Our Election process is as bad, or worse, than any Third World Country. The biggest difference is, they count their Votes much faster – They don’t wait seven days to tell you who won, rigging the Election during each and every one of them.’
‘Americans are ashamed of what is happening!’ Trump added.
Trump brought up the long waits again during his Friday trip to Wisconsin, a speech predominantly billed as a message to the state’s farmers.
‘Can you imagine, it’s four days, and they still aren’t even close to telling you who won. You know why? Because they’re rigging the election, that’s why,’ the President claimed.
The President used California to push Republican lawmakers to pass the Save America Act, a voting bill that would restrict the use of mail-in ballots and expand voter ID.
Despite Republicans having majorities in both houses, the Save America Act is stuck in the US Senate due to widespread Democratic opposition and several moderate GOP holdouts.
For the second consecutive day, Raman added more votes to her tally than both Bass and Pratt.
Bass retains her lead over the two challengers with 34.7 percent after 83 percent of the ballots were counted
‘We are encouraged by the latest vote count and remain grateful to the thousands of Angelenos who have powered this campaign,’ Raman told The Daily Mail.
The Daily Mail has reached out to Pratt for comment.
Pratt’s campaign has been fueled by their $3million home burning down in the 2025 Palisades Fire, as he harnessed resident rage at the city’s response to the infernos to build his political platform.
Pratt has pledged to combat the city’s sprawling homeless encampments, while blaming Bass for allowing them to proliferate.
Like Trump, he has presented himself as a candidate who will topple bureaucracy and make real change in the city.
He has pledged to streamline the chain of command for emergencies like the wildfires and reduce inefficiencies in the permit process to allow victims to rebuild more quickly.
Pratt has also vowed to hire more LAPD officers and use a treatment-first approach to homelessness.
California has been considered a Democratic stronghold in recent years, but this was not always the case.
Pratt has pledged to combat the city’s sprawling homeless encampments, while blaming Bass for allowing them to proliferate
The state has had more Republican governors than Democratic ones in the past 60 years, the most recent being the Austrian-American actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who held the office from 2003 to 2011.
Pratt’s messages have become increasingly more desperate after preaching calm just two days earlier.
‘Patience,’ the former Hills star posted to X Friday afternoon, along with several photos of him outside LA City Hall.
The tedious process of counting all of California‘s mail-in ballots has left the fate of Republicans Pratt and Steve Hilton hanging in the balance.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Renner was spotted Friday walking through LA County’s central processing center, according to footage from Fox News, alongside a member of Democratic California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s team.
‘My office has a presence on the ground right now, is monitoring the situation closely, and stands ready to protect voters and ensure California’s election laws are followed,’ Bonta posted to X, sharing a story about the feds being on hand.
Bass will advance to a November runoff, but with so many ballots left outstanding, it remains unclear whether Pratt or progressive city council member Nithya Raman will be her opponent.
Because of California’s large Democratic population – and the fact that more left-leaning voters appeared to vote by mail and vote by mail later in the election process – the race is still expected to be a nail-biter for Hilton.
Raman burst into tears as early results showed she fell into a distant third place in the race
Mail-in ballots can be counted as long as they were dropped off by 8pm on Election Day.
Additionally, California has a history of taking days to count all those ballots.
The press office for California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, who is term-limited and thus cannot run for reelection, mused on X Thursday: ‘Why do Republicans hate that California counts every vote?’
Hilton has grumbled at the slow pace of the count, calling the process a ‘global laughing stock’ by pointing out that India can tally up 600 million ballots in one day.
‘We’re as confident as ever that we will make the top two,’ he said in an X post Thursday night.
Pratt has reacted to the wait by posting ‘God always wins’ Thursday afternoon.
His wife, reality TV star Heidi Montag, wrote: ‘Never give up, never surrender!’ on Friday morning, though it was not entirely clear if she was referring to the LA mayoral election.
Montag has not explicitly backed her husband’s campaign on social media, instead writing cryptic posts and advertising her new music.
The day before, she had posted simply, ‘Croissants are magic.’
