She really didn't need to do this

"I believe that sometimes leadership means collaboration," says Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass in a new campaign ad, dressed in a Democratic Party-blue blazer. "But know this," she says, pointing at the camera for emphasis. "When my city is threatened, I will fight. I clashed with Trump's ICE agents and Angelenos locked arms to protect our neighbors."

The ad, which is being served to Angelenos on social media, feels scripted to anticipate the criticism Bass was certain to receive after a trip she took to Washington D.C. this week. On Wednesday, she joined Supervisor Kathryn Barger, a Republican, for a meeting in the Oval Office with Donald Trump. The way Bass portrayed the meeting to her constituents was solemn: no faces, all fight. But then, in a photo shared by Trump, we learned she brought presents, which she delivered with a big smile: a Pacific Palisades flag and a torch from LA's 1984 Summer Olympics.

Over the last two years, we've watched gutless leaders go groveling to the White House with gilded gifts to appease our authoritarian overlord. And now Karen Bass is part of that club.

Taken at face value, a 1984 torch is not that special of a gift. Over 3,000 were made — the official number of torchbearers in 1984 was 3,636 — and they're found all over the city. There's one displayed in City Hall's Olympic memorabilia exhibition — controversially displacing the gifts from LA's sister cities — which an intrepid Torched tipster confirmed is still there. The LA84 Foundation's sports library has a few. Trump technically already has one as well; it's in the Smithsonian! Torched also found torches on eBay ranging from $1275 to $10,000. Why not just give him a pair of commemorative opening ceremony tickets? At this point they're worth more than a torch!

But if you look closely at this photo, which I had the extremely unpleasant experience of doing for hours yesterday — also, a Palisades flag plus what's essentially a propane lighter, did no one think about the optics there? — you'll see the torch is in a customized display case that reads "Presented to President Trump from the City of Los Angeles." This was the most egregious part to me. The gall to hand over this symbol of teamwork as he's making it truly impossible to shoulder the tremendous sacrifices that LA is making for "America's Games."

BUT ALSO WE DON'T GIVE PRESENTS TO FASCISTS WHO ARE ACTIVELY INVADING OUR CITY.

It was no surprise for someone like Casey Wasserman to come bearing gold (and silver and bronze) when he presented Trump with a set of 1984 medals during the inaugural LA28 White House task force meeting. Wasserman, who is (still, for now) in charge of LA28, has been pledging allegiance to Trump, stacking its board with MAGA members, and refusing to condemn ICE raids. Earlier this month, Wasserman did his own D.C. rounds asking for money for LA. But all the burnished metals and butt-kissing isn't even guaranteed to work. Gianni Infantino gave Trump a FIFA trophy and invented an entire sham peace prize and he's still not getting the World Cup support he wants from this White House.

But Alissa, you say, the mayor has got to give it a shot. Fire victims need federal money to rebuild. The city needs federal money for infrastructure. Metro needs federal money for buses! But there's a way to ask for federal money and appeal to Trump's ego without throwing your city under said bus. During his first meeting with Trump, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani iconically gifted him two pieces of paper: the 1975 New York Daily News front page with the headline "Ford to City: Drop Dead" and a fake New York Daily News front page with the headline "Trump to City: Let's Build." The shrewd move was described as "soft power via Photoshop." But the real tell was Mamdani's thin half-smile during their photo together. No dimples for Trump!

Giving Trump all that glitters with a wide grin isn't a bargaining chip for a city under siege. And what, exactly, did LA walk out of this meeting with? Nothing. Except for a neat little preview of the Bass administration's posture as we head into our self-imposed megaevent purgatory. 🔥

Home field advantage

Sales are soft for SoFi World Cup matches, The Athletic reported this week, with a document supposedly shared with LA's host committee on April 10 that listed just 40,934 tickets purchased for the opening June 12 match. (SoFi's official capacity for these games is 69,650.) Just before the story came out, FIFA announced that more tickets were magically available, which I'm sure was not related in any way. CNN reported how some superfans have tickets to matches but are now rethinking their trips to the U.S. due to ICE raids. Soccer historian David Goldblatt made a prediction: "I think what we will probably end up seeing is a World Cup for the one percent. I think it will probably be a very white audience as a consequence. These things become visible at World Cups." 🦋

All of this puts the promised World Cup economic boom in doubt, according to an excellent Politico story by Daniel Miller and Ry Rivard, with a heavy focus on LA. In addition to the ongoing ICE threats, there are the potential SoFi worker strikes Torched told you about last week. Plus hotel demand is down, including in LA: "A person close to World Cup planning but not authorized to comment publicly told Politico that this is a problem in other stateside markets, including in Los Angeles, where rooms were also released." But that hasn't stopped Airbnb from offering LA property owners $750 for first-time hosts, claiming that they've been overwhelmed with interest by World Cup tourists.

And that's one Olympic-related item that got priority in the budget. LA Material's Julia Wick reports on Bass's sneaky attempt to help Airbnb expand its footprint ahead of upcoming megaevents. Torched readers will remember that Airbnb is a global sponsor of both FIFA and the IOC, and working hard to recruit hundreds of thousands more hosts ahead of 2028. Anti-Airbnb organizers Better Neighbors has a long letter to council staff compiling all the ways Airbnb is infiltrating local lobbying efforts. And UnrigLA notices that Airbnb is now bankrolling candidate Jose Ugarte in Council District 9 race — where the majority of the 2028 venues are located. 🦋

Will the saga of LA28's human rights strategy ever resolve? Here's a promising development. Legislation introduced this week by Councilmember Adrin Nazarian seems to align more with what anti-trafficking advocates were demanding — asking for these prevention actions to be integrated into the city service agreement that's being negotiated right now. The anti-trafficking advocates at the Sunita Jain Anti-Trafficking Initiative agree. "This is exactly the kind of leadership Los Angeles needs," said Stephanie Richard, SJI's director. "Ensuring that human rights protections and the resources to carry them out are part of those negotiations is essential." This would also give LA a tremendous amount of leverage — and makes me think this service agreement is nowhere close to being settled. 🦋

More essential reading

The great museum glow-up is underway

LACMA, like so many LA cultural institutions, is attempting a total Olympic overhaul ahead of 2028

TorchedAlissa Walker

Beneath the pavement, the beach

Ensuring that the Seine was safe enough to host a handful of Olympic and Paralympic swimmers was only the beginning of the story

TorchedAlissa Walker

The best seat in town

It’s a public bathroom, yes, but it’s really a piece of infrastructure that unlocks access to the city

TorchedAlissa Walker

What Torched subscribers are reading

• "Benches are where optimistic visions of civic life meet reality. To remove them, or to curate who gets to sit, is to abandon the work of defining a civic ideal and determining, together, how to live up to it." An astonishingly beautiful meditation on public seating by Gabrielle Bruney in Places
• "The World Cup Is Coming to the One Country Built for It. We're Blowing It," writes Rodrigo Brancatelli 
• How court filings chronicle the unraveling of the once-solid relationship between SoFi owner Stan Kroenke and Inglewood Mayor James Butts. Loving the LA Local's coverage of all things Butts
• "The rise of the LA Metro TikTok influencer"
• "All-in-all, the sensation is that of crossing an airport tarmac to get to the terminal." Carolina Miranda's LACMA review

The terrific twos

As per Torched anniversary tradition, I was back on Spectrum and so thrilled to appear on Inside the Issues with the great Amrit Singh. Here's the whole segment. (Also on YouTube.) I appeared right after Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, who you can watch talk about conflict with LA28 and more. Also now up: my conversation with Investing in Place's Jessica Meaney, also on Torched's new YouTube channel, or, if you prefer, watch and share a clip on Instagram. And! You can watch the livestream of Wednesday morning's Data + Donuts event featuring LADOT's universal basic mobility program. The recording from Thursday's frank.radio event, which was so wonderful, will be up soon.

Well, friends, it was one heck of a second birthday week — you can see all the highlights here. Thanks to everyone who made it out. And I'll leave you with a parting shot — the world's most incredible donuts. See you back here next week!