Steve Hilton & Spencer Pratt: Fixing California, Cheaper Gas, Ballot Fraud & CA Republicans

Summary

This episode is a forceful attack on California governance from two outsiders trying to turn outrage into political momentum. Steve Hilton argues the state’s problems are structural: excessive regulations, high taxes, expensive housing, weak job creation, and energy policy that he says inflates gas prices. He pitches a first-term agenda to cut regulation, reduce government headcount, cancel high-speed rail, and redirect policy toward working families and lower costs. Spencer Pratt adds a local, grievance-driven perspective on Los Angeles politics, claiming ballot harvesting, dysfunctional enforcement, and nonprofit-backed street chaos distorted his city race. The conversation ends in wildfire liability and infrastructure failure, with Pratt blaming empty reservoirs, brush-management restrictions, and agency negligence for the Palisades disaster.

Notes

• Hilton frames the campaign as a short deadline to "save" California and says the pitch is anti-machine, anti-bloat, and anti-one-party rule.
• He says California has had 16 years of one-party control and leads the country in poverty, unemployment, cost of living, and housing costs.
• He cites Chief Executive magazine ranking California 50th of 50 for business climate.
• Hilton describes the state as governed by a people-versus-machine dynamic and says the regulatory burden is so large he wants to cut regulations from over 420,000 to under 200,000 in one term.
• Hilton says a polling snapshot shows 33% solidly with him, 41% with Javier Becerra, and 26% undecided or movable.
• His agenda combines spending cuts, ending high-speed rail, a 10% headcount reduction, 5% efficiency savings, and elimination of state income tax on the first $150,000.
• He argues California can lower gas prices by changing energy policy and removing hidden fuel taxes, targeting a move from about $6 gas toward $3 gas.
• Hilton says the low carbon fuel standard and cap-and-invest add about $1.50 to the price of gas.
• He proposes flat vehicle registration at $73 per vehicle per year and ties it to abolishing the DMV.
• Hilton and the hosts argue Silicon Valley and government size distort California’s GDP story; Hilton says private-sector job creation has been basically flat since the pandemic.
• Pratt says his campaign message worked because it was based on truth, and he believes many Democrats voted for him.
• He says his LA race ended in an improbable late-count reversal and frames the result around mail ballots.
• Pratt says the system makes what he sees as cheating legal, not necessarily fraud, because of California ballot-harvesting rules.
• Hilton says MacArthur Park is being flooded by taxpayer-funded nonprofits handing out crack pipes, needles, and drugs.
• He says a 2018 Sacramento bill legalized street vending statewide and made it harder for local governments to protect lawful storefronts.
• Hilton closes with a moral inversion claim: people who do the right thing are punished while bad behavior is rewarded.
• Hilton later says California can recover quickly if it removes regulations, lawsuits, fees, and taxes, and he unveils a plan called "Ten New Cities for California."
• Pratt says turnout is the key to the race and claims that if people vote, Hilton wins.
• He says California mail ballots are separated from envelopes, which he argues breaks chain of custody and prevents verification.
• Pratt distinguishes ballot harvesting from fake ballots and says organized operatives can collect votes door-to-door.
• Pratt says DSA operatives are paid.
• He argues California needs voter ID and says there may be potentially a million ballots in circulation for harvesting.
• Pratt says the Palisades reconstruction problem starts with an empty reservoir, missing firebreaks, and brush-management restrictions.
• He says the Palisades lawsuit is a mass tort for 10,000 victims and alleges state parks, LADWP, and the city are liable.
• Pratt says he ran for mayor to stop Bass and Raman, enforce laws, and protect small businesses from illegal vending.
• He says he wants to keep making content and sees opportunities in AI and data centers for Los Angeles.
• Pratt says he wanted to turn Skid Row into data centers as part of a mayoral AI strategy.