Transcript: Raging Trump Erupts On the Air for Unnervingly Dark Reason

So Spencer Pratt had money from Sergey Brin of Google, who’s now pretty much a right-winger. Joe Lonsdale of Palantir, who’s completely off the charts, far right—recently called for public executions in the United States. And so you can always count on having them throw in some money.

On the state level, a lot of the right-wing tech guys got behind the candidacy of Matt Mahan, the mayor of San Jose, who was trying to run as a moderate. People weren’t buying that. So we can expect the right-wing tech money now to go behind Steve Hilton if he makes the general. Again, they’re not betting on victory, they’re betting on disruption and chaos and providing a beachhead where Trump can continue to make his claims about the obsolescence of the democratic process.

Sargent: So how does this all unspool from here? Basically, the most likely scenario is that Spencer Pratt gets bumped out of contention for LA mayor and Steve Hilton goes on to the general for governor and most likely loses at the end of the day to Xavier Becerra, right?

Duran: Definitely. Steve Hilton is almost guaranteed to lose to Becerra, who’s not a particularly strong Democrat, but California is so Democratic that even if Becerra were dead, he would still beat Steve Hilton in a general election. I mean, there’s just no path really for Hilton to win.

Pratt—it seems mathematically impossible for him now to regain the second slot. So he probably won’t be in the race. He has said that if he lost, he would move out of Los Angeles, which is a pretty loser thing to say.

You don’t really hear people who want to be the mayor or want to be the governor say, I’m going to move out of the state. You’re supposed to act like, I’m going to stay here no matter what and continue to work to help my community, and then run again in four years when your challenger is unpopular if they win.

Again, they’re going to fold up their tents and go on to the next thing after this. Steve Hilton is probably just trying to get on another show on Fox. His was canceled because no one was watching it. So this is for him an audience-building exercise more than anything.

Although there was a piece in the Financial Times over the weekend where these three Brits said, it’s amazing that he’s the front-runner and he’s had this major political turnaround. These are people with no idea of California politics. He’s just simply the guy who’s desperate enough for attention that he’s willing to lose the governor’s race to get it. And that’s exactly what’s going to happen.

Sargent: Well, I sure hope so. Gil Duran—folks, if you enjoyed this, make sure to check out Gil’s new book. It’s coming out in mid-August. It’s called The Nerd Right: Silicon Valley, Fascism, and the War on Democracy. Gil, always great to talk to you. Thanks for coming on.

Duran: Thanks for having me.