Spencer Pratt Claps Back: My Money, My Rules, My Mayoral Bid

When you’re 42 and running for Los Angeles mayor, your financial past becomes fair game—and Spencer Pratt isn’t backing down from it. On the“No Jumper”podcast, the reality TV fixture fired back at critics who’ve been taking shots at his spending habits, reminding everyone that the $10 million he blew through in his younger years was *his* money, earned from“The Hills”paychecks, and nobody else’s problem.

Here’s the thing that makes his defense interesting: he’s not apologizing for being young and stupid with cash. Instead, he’s reframing it as the cost of doing business when you’re building a brand empire—or at least trying to. Back when he was in his 20s and early 30s, Spencer’s goal was simple: get rich, get famous, and pull off what Kim Kardashian managed. He wasn’t thinking about retirement portfolios or fiscal responsibility. He was thinking about the next flex.

What he got wrong, though, was betting on the gravy train never ending. Reality TV was supposed to keep printing money forever. Spoiler alert: it didn’t. When the“Hills”machine sputtered, so did the paychecks, and suddenly $10 million doesn’t feel so infinite anymore. But here’s where his defense gains traction—he spent his own earnings, not investor money, not shareholder funds, and definitely not taxpayer dollars.

That last point matters more than you’d think, especially since he’s throwing it right back at current Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. After Bass took shots at him earlier this week, Spencer countered that she’s the one who should worry about being“bad with money”—pointing to hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars he views as recklessly spent on projects he’d reshape as mayor. It’s a classic political move: flip the script and make the incumbent’s record the real issue.

Spencer says his spending spree at least helped people around him and his circle, and he’s declared zero regrets. If voters don’t send him to City Hall on election day, he’s cool pivoting back to selling healing crystals. That kind of confidence—or delusion, depending on your view—is either exactly what L.A. needs in city leadership or exactly what it doesn’t.

What’s your read: is a guy who torched $10 million in his 20s equipped to manage a city budget, or does his transparency about past spending and his willingness to own it count for something?