Three Homeless Guys, Countless Lies: Traci Park Embraces the Alt-Right

Councilmember Traci Park, who represents Los Angeles City Council District 11, recently appeared on a podcast called "Three Homeless Guys" — a show hosted by none other than Joel Pollak, a senior editor-at-large for Breitbart News. Her participation in this podcast raises serious questions about her political alignments and judgment.

Pollak is not just a journalist. He’s a key figure at Breitbart, a far-right media outlet that has long been associated with white nationalist talking points, Trump-aligned disinformation campaigns, and extremist rhetoric. Breitbart was once infamously described by Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, as the “platform for the alt-right.” Pollak himself has a documented record of defending figures like Roy Moore amid sexual abuse allegations, promoting deep state conspiracy theories, and aggressively backing Trump-era immigration and policing policies. More recently, Pollak has praised Donald Trump's move to end refugee admissions from most countries while creating a special carveout for white Afrikaners from South Africa — a decision rooted in the far-right conspiracy theory of a supposed "white genocide" in post-apartheid South Africa. That narrative has been amplified by MAGA figures to push anti-DEI sentiment and justify racist U.S. foreign policy. Pollak has also been floated as a potential Trump-appointed ambassador to South Africa, further signaling how closely the alt-right worldview and South African white nationalist grievances are intertwined.

Pollak is now promoting his own version of Project 2025 — an even more explicitly ideological blueprint for a second Trump administration, titled "The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days." His recommendations include shutting out legal immigrants, restricting abortion access, dismantling protections for LGBTQ+ people, banning chain migration, launching White House Bible study sessions, and initiating retributive actions against Trump’s political opponents. Pollak's vision is one of aggressive Christian nationalism disguised as policy reform — and it's being amplified by the same right-wing ecosystem Traci Park willingly chose to appear on.

This narrative is not abstract — it’s been aggressively cultivated by groups like AfriForum, a white nationalist organization masquerading as a civil rights group. AfriForum has spent years lobbying the Trump administration with propaganda falsely framing land reform and affirmative action policies in South Africa as an attack on the white minority. The group has close ties to Elon Musk, who has parroted its talking points to challenge South Africa’s Black economic empowerment laws, calling them “openly racist.” Musk, who grew up under apartheid, has refused to comply with equity-sharing rules while trying to push his Starlink venture into the South African market. AfriForum has led a campaign claiming Starlink is being blocked because it's “too white.”

AfriForum’s efforts are not limited to policy lobbying. Its officials have made media appearances on platforms like Tucker Carlson’s show and Alex Jones’ Infowars to promote the myth that Afrikaners are being systematically murdered and persecuted — a narrative that inspired Trump to cut aid to South Africa and offer asylum to white South Africans while simultaneously banning actual refugees from majority-Muslim countries. The Southern Poverty Law Center has described AfriForum’s leadership as white supremacists in suits. Their fabricated claims echo apartheid-era fearmongering and were even cited in the manifestos of white nationalist mass murderers like Anders Breivik and Dylann Roof.

This toxic narrative of white victimhood — born in apartheid nostalgia and now weaponized globally — has even inspired violent extremism. South African right-wing artists like Steve Hofmeyr have used their platforms to promote this ideology and call for intervention from Trump himself. The so-called "Red October" campaign and international petitions for Afrikaner repatriation to Europe or refugee status in the U.S. have been amplified in American alt-right spaces. These myths of a "white genocide" in South Africa have made their way into the manifestos of mass murderers like Breivik and Roof, showing just how dangerous this rhetoric can be when it crosses borders and merges with global white supremacist movements.

By appearing on Pollak’s podcast — a show framed around post-disaster recovery but steeped in right-wing grievance politics — Park isn’t just talking about rebuilding efforts in the Palisades. She’s legitimizing a media platform with a long history of pushing extremist narratives. She joins hosts who openly express nostalgia for Trump-era governance and hostility toward California’s progressive policy framework.

Even the name of the show — "Three Homeless Guys" — is a tasteless joke. The hosts are not unhoused, but rather wealthy Palisadians, some of whom own multiple properties and are calling in from vacation in Florida or international trips. To posture as "homeless" while railing against actual unhoused people, many of whom are living in deep poverty or facing life-threatening conditions on LA’s streets, is not just insensitive — it's grotesque. The show’s entire framing mocks the suffering of real Angelenos while cloaking elite grievance politics in faux victimhood.

Throughout the interview, Pollak praises Park’s commitment to the Palisades, but the tone and framing of the conversation are loaded with anti-homeless tropes and veiled attacks on LA’s investments in social services. Park does nothing to distance herself from those narratives. In fact, she actively participates in the rhetoric, calling homelessness a “suck” on city resources and repeating talking points that echo Republican attacks on public spending, safety net programs, and progressive governance.

At one point, Pollak even cites a report by interim fire chief Alex Villanueva — the disgraced former sheriff who became notorious for defying civilian oversight, refusing to investigate deputy gangs, and embracing far-right conspiracy theories — as proof that homelessness is costing the city too much money. Villanueva, now a hero to MAGA Republicans, has long aligned himself with authoritarian politics and anti-reform messaging. Neither Park nor the hosts question Villanueva’s credibility or extremist record. Instead, his claims are treated as fact. For Park to elevate Villanueva’s perspective without critique is especially troubling given his open contempt for accountability and his attacks on journalists, oversight bodies, and basic civil rights during his time in office.

It’s also telling that the other podcast hosts — entrepreneur Oren Ezra and tech executive Ron Goldshmidt — frame California’s regulatory climate and infrastructure investment as part of the state’s decline, comparing it unfavorably to Florida and even suggesting residents should leave LA altogether. Park, rather than challenging these portrayals, sympathizes with them and positions herself as the lone rational actor in a broken city government — a well-worn right-wing narrative.

While Park continues to brand herself as a pragmatic centrist, her media choices paint a different picture. Appearing alongside far-right influencers like Pollak and offering no pushback on their extremist framing is not neutrality — it’s complicity.

At a time when Angelenos are reckoning with the real consequences of climate change, unaffordable housing, and systemic inequality, Park’s alignment with voices like Pollak’s is not just inappropriate — it’s dangerous. Voters deserve to know exactly who their representatives are legitimizing and amplifying. By joining a platform linked to white nationalism and MAGA extremism, echoing the rhetoric of disgraced figures like Alex Villanueva, and cozying up to a host who defends apartheid-era nostalgia dressed up as refugee advocacy and now openly advocates for a Christian nationalist government, Traci Park is sending a clear signal: her loyalties lie more with the reactionary right than with the diverse, progressive communities she was elected to serve.

Just as apartheid South Africa used legal frameworks and fear-driven propaganda to dispossess and control the Black majority, Park's anti-tenant and anti-homeless policies are accelerating a form of racialized displacement on LA’s Westside. Under the guise of public safety and neighborhood restoration, Park has embraced a deeply exclusionary vision for the district — one that criminalizes poverty, undermines rent protections, and prioritizes the comfort of affluent homeowners over the human rights of unhoused people and working-class renters. This is not simply poor policy — it is segregation by design, an American cousin to the same apartheid logic Pollak and his allies are exporting to the global far right. That Park finds common cause with these figures should alarm everyone who believes in housing justice and multiracial democracy.