The Bel Air Hotel sounds like a cushy place to stay, right?

I mean, “Bel Air” just sounds ritzy, and the hotel — opened in 1946 — is known for its quiet, secluded luxury.

When the media found out that the then-Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt was staying there, and not living full time on the trailer he had installed on his burnt-out Pacific Palisades lot, they pounced, portraying him as a spoiled hypocrite who was living high on the hog while pretending to be devastated by the loss of his home.

In a long X article Tuesday, Pratt — who eventually saw his seeming second-place finish in the primaries evaporate six days after the vote in favor of Democratic socialist Nithya Raman — revealed there were other reasons he chose the Bel Air, but the media just wanted to get in their punch to the gut:

…when the media found out I was staying there, they were most certainly not cozy nor at ease. The backlash was intense, and predictably so. Whenever you land a blow with a successful political ad, you can always expect the machine to find any reason they can to dismantle and neutralize it, and the goblins were out for blood.

Here’s the viral video that he’s referring to:

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But why the Bel Air? Wasn’t he portraying himself as something he wasn’t? No, he argues, saying he couldn’t explain the details during his campaign because of all of the threats he and his family were receiving. But he can now:

Most people simply presumed that I was being a bougie spoiled brat, and that I was abusing campaign funds. They expected me to stay at a cheaper hotel, but what they don’t realize is…the Hotel Bel Air was the cheapest hotel in all of LA.

The root of the problem in Pratt’s eyes: leftist thuggery.

We have a communist violence problem. Throughout the campaign, I endured numerous death threats, to the point where I had to hire full-time security. Anyone who’s had to hire security knows that they will always tell you to not discuss your death threats; they find that it often has the opposite effect you would expect; normal people should hear it and think “whoa, we need to dial back the temperature, this isn’t acceptable”, but the reality is that commie street animals get inspired, and you will end up getting copycats if you advertise your threats…

People were breaking into my lot in the Palisades and leaving notes on the airstream with white powder in them. I had LA Times reporters stalking my family, even harassing the manager at my favorite Mexican spot, demanding they tell them what I liked to eat. That same reporter then doxxed where my young children sleep at night.

He spent gobs of money he could have put into ads, mailers, and get-out-the-vote efforts on security, and the Bel Air offered an opportunity. His team told him he couldn’t possibly be safe in an exposed, burnt-out lot in a devastated neighborhood. The Bel Air is a secure property, the former reality star explained, because it is “surrounded with a fortress wall, with a single point of ingress, a fatal funnel that takes you over a moat.” 

Instead of having to pay for multiple rooms to house his detail, he could simply be dropped off and be assured of a decent level of safety.

In an ironic twist, Pratt described how he ran into the extreme leftist Raman during debate prep, and he was stunned by what he didn't see: any visible security. Why not? 

He came to a powerful realization:

It was at that moment I realized the bubble the left lives in. We have a communist violence problem in America. Nithya doesn’t need security. She doesn’t even think about it. And even though people will try to invert the narrative and portray the right wing as the scary violent terrorists, the real proof is in the pudding; the republican in the race has security, the communist doesn’t. That tells you everything. Even they know, deep down, they never have to worry about violence because the violence only ever goes one way, and it comes from their team.

He posted this tweet in his article to back up his point:

Pratt had plenty more to say about the violence problem, but he summed up his journey with one stark message:

This is the way of the future, and I’m doing everything in my power to keep my family safe as this communist menace continues to rise. I’m done leaving our lives in the hands of government. We are on our own.

That may not be the experience of every American, especially those who are not living in crumbling cities and states run by socialists — but for all too many, Pratt’s warnings will ring true. The Marxist movement and the leftist violence must be stopped, or we’ll all need security teams at this rate.

We’ll see Tuesday night if enough voters have woken up, or if it’s going to have to get worse before it gets better.