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The New York Times Saturday published a report confirming that Donald Trump was indeed on a rocky helicopter ride as he earlier claimed. But it was not with Willie Brown, the former San Francisco mayor, Kamala Harris’ ex-boyfriend as Trump claimed in his press conference Thursday. On Friday, NYT said the ‘jaw-dropping story’ that Trump told about nearly dying in a helicopter ride actually never happened.
On Friday afternoon, Trump angrily called the NYT and threatened to sue them as he vehemently maintained that he had once been in a dangerous helicopter landing with Willie Brown and had records of the ride.
“In an angry phone call to a New York Times reporter as he landed several hours away from his planned rally in Bozeman, Mont., because of a mechanical issue on his plane, Mr. Trump excoriated The Times for its coverage of his meandering news conference on Thursday at Mar-a-Lago, his private club and home, during which he told of an emergency landing during a helicopter trip that he said both he and Mr. Brown had made together,” the NYT reported.
On Friday afternoon, Trump angrily called the NYT and threatened to sue them as he vehemently maintained that he had once been in a dangerous helicopter landing with Willie Brown and had records of the ride.
“In an angry phone call to a New York Times reporter as he landed several hours away from his planned rally in Bozeman, Mont., because of a mechanical issue on his plane, Mr. Trump excoriated The Times for its coverage of his meandering news conference on Thursday at Mar-a-Lago, his private club and home, during which he told of an emergency landing during a helicopter trip that he said both he and Mr. Brown had made together,” the NYT reported.
NYT reported Saturday that it was Nate Holden, 95, a former Los Angeles city councilman who had been on a helicopter ride with Trump around 1990 when the aircraft made an emergency landing in New Jersey. NYT’s Maggie Haberman said she was in a call with Trump on another issue and then Trump brought the helicopter story.
Haberman said she asked Trump to show the record to which Trump mocked her in a sing-song tone saying ‘Oh you’d love to see the records’ in a childlike voice.
Donald Trump helicopter emergency landing story: Explained in 10 points
- Donald Trump during his press conference on Thursday said he knows Willie Brown very well. The question was lobbed at him by a journalist in context of Willie Brown’s past relationship with Kamala Harris
- “Well, I know Willie Brown very well,” Trump responded. “In fact, I went down in a helicopter with him.” Then he told a story of how there was an emergency landing of the helicopter.
- Trump also said Willie Brown told him ‘terrible things’ about Kamala Harris when Brown and Harris were dating.
- Willie Brown dismissed the entire story and said neither of it happened. Brown said he was never on a helicopter with Trump and he could not envision Kamala Harris in any negative way to say “terrible things” about her.
- Brown said Donald Trump was dreaming and the entire story of a helicopter ride together was fiction.
- Then media outlets speculated that Trump probably was speaking about a helicopter ride with Jerry Brown in 2018, confusing between Jerry Brown and Willie Brown. But there was no emergency landing there, Gavin Newsom who was also on the flight confirmed.
- Newsom clarified that he never spoke about Kamala Harris with Donald Trump either.
- Donald Trump made a long post on Truth Social about “two failing New York Times reporters” for questioning his helicopter story.
- Trump emphasized that it was Willie Brown and not Jerry Brown.
- Amid all this confusion, Nate Holden said he remembered a near-death experience on a helicopter ride with Donald Trump. “Willie is the short Black guy living in San Francisco,” Holden said. “I’m a tall Black guy living in Los Angeles.” “I guess we all look alike,” Holden told Politico, letting out a loud laugh.
