Rick Caruso, the billionaire developer of The Grove, says he will not run for mayor of Los Angeles in 2026. He also criticizes Mayor Karen Bass for allegedly downplaying an important report about the Palisades Fire.
Caruso, who lost to Bass in 2022, said he won’t run, even though there was talk that he might because of a Los Angeles Times story that said Bass changed the fire report to cover up mistakes in leadership. He hired private firefighters to keep his Palisades Village safe while Bass was in Ghana. He said Bass’s actions were a “betrayal of public trust” and that she is “not willing to be held accountable—for anything.
A report said that Bass told officials to make their criticisms of the Los Angeles Fire Department’s response to the terrible Palisades and Alt fires less harsh. Bass says no, pointing out that the LAFD has new leaders and that she has criticized them before. The fires showed that there were gaps in emergency response, and Caruso criticized bad decisions that put people’s lives at risk. Caruso said that Spencer Pratt, a reality star who wants to be mayor, was well-meaning but not qualified for the job.
Pratt has criticized Bass for hiding the fire report. On the anniversary of the Palisades Fire, Pratt announced his run for office and promised to expose the politics of Los Angeles. Caruso called the Graffiti Towers a “billboard indicating a city in crisis” before the 2028 Olympics and said they should be torn down instead of fixed up, which would cost a lot. He didn’t take sides on the emails that Olympics chief Casey Wasserman sent to Epstein.
