Former President Donald Trump’s claim that he almost died in a helicopter with Vice President Kamala Harris’ ex-boyfriend Willie Brown recently raised questions from critics on social media.
“I went down in a helicopter with him. We thought maybe this was the end,” the former president said during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Thursday. “We were in a helicopter going to a certain location together, and there was an emergency landing. This was not a pleasant landing.”
On Friday, Politico released an interview with Nate Holden, a former city council member and state senator from California, who claimed that he was the one on the helicopter with Trump, not Brown, a former San Francisco mayor.
“Willie is the short Black guy living in San Francisco,” Holden told Politico. “I’m a tall Black guy living in Los Angeles.” He added with a laugh, “I guess we all look alike.”
Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, doubled down on Friday, writing on his social media site, Truth Social, that it was indeed Brown on that helicopter ride.
Brown told The New York Times on Friday, “You know me well enough to know that if I almost went down in a helicopter with anybody, you would have heard about it!”
Holden claims that in 1990 he went on a helicopter with Trump to get to Atlantic City, New Jersey, to tour the real estate tycoon’s Taj Mahal casino.
Barbara Res, Trump’s former executive vice president of construction and development who was also aboard the helicopter, according to Politico, wrote about the ordeal in her book, All Alone on the 68th Floor.
“The pilot let us know he had lost some instruments and we would need to make an emergency landing,” she wrote in her book. “By now, the helicopter was shaking like crazy.”
Res told Politico it was definitely Holden on the helicopter with them. After the considerable turbulence, the helicopter landed safely in New Jersey and within an hour, the group was in Atlantic City.
Newsweek has reached out to Trump’s communications director via email for comment on Saturday afternoon.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Questions Are Raised About Trump’s Story
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told Kaitlan Collins on CNN Friday night, “You can just tell that [Trump’s] lost a step. He’s getting mushier, fuzzier, more confused.”
Buttigieg referenced Trump’s helicopter story and said of the 78-year-old: “It does raise some real concerns about what’s happened to Donald Trump over the years. Is this a symptom of something? Is he struggling to maintain a grip on reality?”
.@PeteButtigieg on Trump’s debunked claim that he flew on a helicopter w/Willie Brown:
“You can just tell that he’s lost his step. He’s getting mushier, fuzzier, more confused…It does raise some real concerns about what’s happened to Trump…is this a symptom of something?” pic.twitter.com/DNVg9LfDBD
— Lis Smith (@Lis_Smith) August 10, 2024
The Times reported on Thursday that Trump mistakenly referred to former California Governor Jerry Brown as Willie Brown when telling the helicopter story.
Trump took a helicopter ride with Jerry Brown and then-governor-elect of California Gavin Newsom in 2018 to survey wildfire damage in Sacramento, the newspaper reported.
When MSNBC’s Morning Joe reported on the Times‘ story, the newscasters laughed at the fact that Trump could confuse Jerry Brown, a white man, with Willie Brown, a Black man.
Christopher Webb, a self-proclaimed Democrat, according to his X profile, shared a clip of the Morning Joe segment and wrote on X on Friday morning, “Was it a lie or cognitive failure?”
In Trump’s Truth Social post on Friday, he criticized the Times for its reporting and wrote, “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.”
Brian Krassenstein, who gained popularity on social media after trolling Trump on X, formerly Twitter, during his presidency, wrote on X on Saturday morning: “Donald Trump recently made a claim about an emergency helicopter landing involving him and Willie Brown, which is either a blatant lie or a clear case of mistaken identity (confusing 2 black men).”
He continued: “The real issue here is Trump’s refusal to admit a mistake. Instead of acknowledging the error, he’s doubling down on the falsehood, which highlights a concerning pattern…this behavior should alarm voters because a leader who cannot admit fault is likely to repeat mistakes—and in this case, he’s doing so over something trivial yet insists on misleading the public.”
FACT CHECK: The Trump Helicopter Falsehood Involving Willie Brown
Donald Trump recently made a claim about an emergency helicopter landing involving him and Willie Brown, which is either a blatant lie or a clear case of mistaken identity (confusing 2 black men). In reality, the… pic.twitter.com/ftTpqjDreg
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) August 10, 2024
Meanwhile, Mike Rothschild, who describes himself as a “conspiracy theory journalist and expert” on X and who has made appearances on MSNBC, CNN and PBS News, wrote on X early Saturday morning, “So the helicopter story was real, Trump just got every detail of it wrong other than it involved a helicopter and a Black politician. Maybe we shouldn’t give him the nuclear codes again?”
So the helicopter story was real, Trump just got every detail of it wrong other than it involved a helicopter and a Black politician.
Maybe we shouldn’t give him the nuclear codes again? https://t.co/7Gn8Hk3lNQ
— Mike Rothschild (no relation) (@rothschildmd) August 10, 2024
