Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown responded to GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s claims that the two once shared a harrowing helicopter ride during the course of their doing business together.
Brown laughed at Trump’s recollection of the events, calling it Trump “doing what Donald does best.” What was that? “His creativity — fictional,” Brown replied.
But before he moved on to deny ever being in a helicopter with Trump, Brown emphasized a less mentioned part of Trump’s claim. The former mayor wanted people to know what he considered a critical point: “I have never done business with Donald Trump. Let’s start with that.”
[Note: Brown’s denial may be contingent on how “business” is defined. Columnist Maureen Dowd reports Brown saying that Trump once sent his plane to pick up Brown and Kamala Harris — a couple at the time — to “get Brown’s advice on a Los Angeles real estate deal.” That was so long ago that Trump was then a contributor to Harris’s campaign for San Francisco District Attorney.]
As for Trump’s helicopter claim, Brown says “he’s dreaming.”
So, Donald Trump totally invented the story about being on a helicopter with Willie Brown that supposedly almost crashed. In reality, not only did the helicopter never crash—they were never on a helicopter together at all.
Where is the press coverage on this? Imagine if Joe… pic.twitter.com/CjLoAS8VuU
— Chris D. Jackson (@ChrisDJackson) August 9, 2024
The New York Times reported that Trump may have conflated Brown with the Los Angeles-based former state senator Nate Holden, who says he did share a dangerous helicopter flight with Trump in the 1990s.
Insisting he did not mix up the two men, Trump was “so adamant that it had happened that he threatened to sue The New York Times for reporting that the story was untrue, then posted on his social media site that there were ‘Logs,’ Maintenance Records, and Witnesses’ to back up his account.”