Former President Donald Trump fired back at The New York Times Friday evening, reiterating his statement that former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown was with Trump in a helicopter that nearly crashed.
"Two Failing New York Times 'reporters' questioned my story about a forced landing of a helicopter, in a field, with former Mayor of San Francisco, Willie Brown, and others. First of all, it was in New Jersey, not California, and it was Willie Brown, not former Governor Jerry Brown. So far they are about as accurate as they are with their other stories about me," Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.
"In an article dated April 15, 2011, 'His Willieness dishes about his good buddy Donald Trump. I remember one time Trump sent his private jet to Boston to pick me up.' He's just angling for another ride in Trump's jet (helicopter!). But now Willie doesn't remember? No, he remembers!" Trump's post continued.
During a press conference on Thursday at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, the former president said that he knew Willie Brown "very well" and then described the helicopter story. On Friday, The New York Times published a rebuttal saying the incident never occurred and reported it was Jerry Brown on the flight with Trump.
"In fact, I went down in a helicopter with him, we thought, 'Maybe this is the end,'" Trump said during the press conference. "We were in a helicopter, going to a certain location together, and there was an emergency landing. This was not a pleasant landing."
Brown dismissed Trump's story as make-believe, telling KRON4 out of San Francisco that the incident never happened.
"I've never done business with Donald Trump, let's start with that," Brown told the outlet. "And secondly, I don't think I'd want to ride on the same helicopter with him. There's too many people that have an agenda with reference to him, including the people who service helicopters!"
Former Los Angeles city councilman and California state Sen. Nate Holden told Politico on Friday that it was he who was with Trump on a helicopter that made an emergency landing.
"Willie is the short Black guy living in San Francisco," Holden told the outlet. "I'm a tall Black guy living in Los Angeles. I guess we all look alike."
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung pushed back, saying that Trump had made reference to the helicopter incident the book "Letters to Trump," in which he praised Brown.
"I knew Willie Brown a long time ago. He was a hot politician and had a great 'way.' We had an emergency landing in a helicopter together. It was a little scary for both of us, but thankfully we made it," he said in the book.
Brown has long been credited with launching the career of Vice President Kamala Harris as the two dated in the 1990s when Brown was 60 and Harris was 29.
James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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