Then-President Donald Trump is shown with Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown and Governor-Elect Gavin Newsom during a visit to a neighborhood in Malibu, Calif., devastated by the Woolsey fire on Nov. 17, 2018. Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead/Flickr
Former President Donald Trump’s story this week about surviving a helicopter crash landing with former California State Assembly Speaker Willie Brown in 2018 is untrue, those involved told the New York Times.
During a press conference held Thursday, the 2024 Republican presidential nominee told a story that reflected poorly on his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris, in which he claimed Brown spoke to him negatively about her while they were surviving a close brush with death together during a crash landing in California. Advertisement
Brown and Harris dated briefly in the early 1990s when the Democratic nominee was a prosecutor in Alameda County, Calif. Trump’s story came after he was asked about the decades-ago relationship between the pair, which Harris’ various political opponents have pointed to over the years as being inappropriate.
“Willie was — he was a little concerned [about Harris],” Trump said while relating his tale of going “down in a helicopter with him.”
“So I know him, but I know him pretty well. I mean, I haven’t seen him in years. But he told me terrible things about her.” Advertisement
Trump concluded, “He was not a fan of hers very much, at that point.”
However, the alleged helicopter ride with Willie Brown never happened — it was rather then-Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown who accompanied Trump during a trip to survey damage caused by the deadly 2018 California wildfires, the Times reported Thursday, indicating the former president either confused the two Browns or fabricated the story.
Meanwhile, current Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who also was aboard the helicopter during the 2018 flight, claimed it never made an emergency landing and that none of the passengers onboard were ever in any danger.
“I call complete B.S.,” Newsom told the newspaper.
Willie Brown, now 90, told the Times Trump’s tale was false, confirming that he had never ridden in a helicopter with the former president, never nearly died in a crash and that he remained an “avid supporter” of Harris.
“You know me well enough to know that if I almost went down in a helicopter with anybody, you would have heard about it!” he said.
