As Los Angeles gets ready to take center stage as a host city of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Mayor Karen Bass expressed confidence Wednesday that she will also be leading the city when the Olympic flame arrives in the summer of 2028.
Bass, former congressmember and community organizer, said despite her low approval rating, she will be able to rally different groups of voters together to be reelected in November.
A recent Emerson College/Inside California Politics poll showed 24% of Los Angeles voters approved Bass’ performance while 47% disapproved.
The same poll also showed the majority of LA voters (50.9%) is still undecided on who to pick as the next mayor. Bass received 19.5% of the support while Spencer Pratt, a conservative reality TV personality, received 10.2%. Councilmember Nithya Raman trailed them at third place with 9.3% of the support, according to the poll.
Despite less-than-positive numbers, Bass said she wasn’t “shocked.”
“I think the electorate is in a foul mood,” Bass said during an one-on-one interview with NBC Los Angeles. “What I am confident about is bringing various groups together, doing the grassroots work, support from the business community, labor and community organization.”
Bass’ low approval rating was also not a surprise given the criticism she’s faced since the Palisades Fire. Community members, including her challenger Pratt, have slammed the mayor over her handling of the fire response.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order in January to take control of the rebuilding in the Pacific Palisades, appointing Environmental Protection Agency Director Lee Zeldin to investigate the city’s permit process.
Bass said Zeldin, with whom she had work in Congress, came to LA and examined more than 2,000 permits.
“We realized we offered a lot of permits and never heard back, so we reached those people and found that the reason they are stuck is because of the banking industry and the insurance industry,” the mayor explained.
The bottleneck resulted in a phone call to the White House, she said, as the banks and insurance companies are not paying fire victims what they deserve.
“I appealed to the President and said, ‘Only you can bring these two industries together in your oval office,'” she said. “And I told him we need a FEMA reimbursement. We want to underground the utilities in the Palisades. We don’t have the resources to do that.”
While Bass said the conversation with “constructive,” she feared the ongoing war in Iran would lead to potential budget shortfalls at the state and local level, which would further hamper the city’s effort to hire more police officers.
Following last weekend’s street takeover that ended in vandalism in downtown Los Angeles, the mayor said the LAPD will increase patrols on foot and in cars in addition to undercover units and horse patrols.
“We will put a stop to that. You won’t see that again,” she said.
Despite public safety concerns, Bass said the city will be ready to safely host the World Cup and the 2028 LA Olympics. She said federal law enforcement will help the LAPD to keep visitors safe, citing President Trump’s personal affect for high-profile spectacles.
“You know he wants to be front and center on the World Cup,” Bass said. “And I believe the World Cup will be safe along with the Olympics.”