US presidential candidate Donald Trump spoke on Thursday about a helicopter flight he shared with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown that he said nearly ended in disaster. Brown denied that such a situation ever happened, and there are suggestions in the public sphere that Trump may have confused him with another black politician.
– I flew with him in a helicopter – he said. Donald Trump during a Thursday news conference, referring to Willie Brown, former mayor of San Francisco. “We thought it was over. We were flying somewhere together, we had to make an emergency landing. Willie was a little worried,” he continued.
Brown, who also previously served as speaker of the California Legislature, told the San Francisco Chronicle that he had never ridden in a helicopter with Trump.
Brown dated Trump’s current rival, Kamala Harris, in the 1990s. The Republican candidate said at a conference that Brown had said “terrible things” to him about her. In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, the former San Francisco mayor said he never said anything to Trump about Harris.
Donald TrumpBrendan Gutenschwager/Abaca/PAP
Did Trump mix up the people?
Another politician from California, who is black like Willie Brown, Nate Holden, spoke about his helicopter flight with Donald Trump. On Friday evening, he told Politico that it was he who, probably in 1990, experienced a flight with Trump that could have ended tragically.
Reuters also recalls that in 2018, when he was president, Trump, along with then-California Governor Jerry Brown, who, however – unlike Willie Brown – is not black, viewed the areas devastated by the fires from a helicopter. Jerry Brown's representative told the New York Times that there was no emergency landing at that time, and there was no discussion about Kamala Harris during the flight.
Trump maintains his position
Despite Willie Brown’s statement denying the entire story, Trump stuck to his position in a post on his Truth Social platform, and said he had evidence to back it up.
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung, when asked to provide the evidence, linked to a post he made on X with a photo of a page from the 2023 book “Letters to Trump,” written by the Republican candidate. The photo showed a photo of Trump and Brown together. The post also included a quote from the book.
“I knew Willie Brown for a long time. He was a hotshot politician and had a great 'manner'. We had an emergency helicopter landing. It was a little scary for both of us, but luckily we made it. His time with Kamala Harris was very interesting from a perspective, but only he can tell that story,” we read.
Asked about Holden's account of the helicopter ride with Trump, Cheung said: “It sounds like Holden is either lying or has memory problems.”
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Main image source: PAP/EPA/MICHAEL REYNOLDS