Controversy erupted over Independence Day weekend when former reality TV star Spencer Pratt sharply criticized New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani for using the holiday to criticize America's history.
Pratt, known for his surprise Los Angeles mayoral run, targeted Mamdani's immigration-themed address from George Washington's desk, flanked by eight recently naturalized U.S. citizens.
Mamdani's address criticized U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and what he described as the "arena of supremacy" in the United States.
Pratt responded with a viral video, saying, "Notice how the communists always attack your history."
Wearing a T-shirt reading "the anti-socialists social club," Pratt sat behind a foldout table beside an RV at the site where his home burned down in the Los Angeles Palisades fire last year.
He remarked, "We all had to sit and watch that vile, commie mayor sit on the wrong side of our founding father's desk to try to lecture us about our own history."
Pratt referred to communism as "an evil, anti-human religion," seeking to "destroy what makes us human."
The former reality TV star urged Americans to "think of your country like a home" and to celebrate their history unashamedly.
Pratt acknowledged that America's history is not perfect, but he argued that "bad times are part of what makes us stronger, a part of what makes us who we are."
Turning his fire back to Mamdani, Pratt said, "he has no place to rewrite our history and lecture us about what our country stands for."
Mamdani, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Uganda, said that every American has "the power to determine what America means."
He criticized the powerful for viewing America as an "arena of supremacy" where only a select few are allowed freedom, and where not all are created equal.
The mayor argued that America is exceptional because its history is not fixed into place, and that the work of fulfilling the values enshrined in the Declaration of Independence endures for all Americans.
