Ex-Mayor Refutes Trump's Helicopter Tale as Pure Fiction
San Francisco’s former mayor, Willie Brown, has labeled as “fiction” a story recently shared by Donald Trump, where the former president recounted a supposedly terrifying helicopter ride they both endured. According to Trump, the two were in a helicopter that had to make an emergency landing, leaving Brown visibly shaken. “We thought maybe this was it,” Trump remarked. “The landing was far from pleasant.”
However, Brown, now 90, told US media that this event never occurred and firmly denied ever sharing a helicopter with Trump. “I don’t think I’d want to ride on the same helicopter with him,” Brown added.
It seems Trump, 78, might have confused Willie Brown with Jerry Brown, the former governor of California. In 2018, Trump did share a helicopter with Jerry Brown and current Governor Gavin Newsom during a visit to survey the aftermath of the Paradise wildfires. Both men have since confirmed that there was no emergency landing or any sense of danger during that flight. Governor Newsom, in particular, told The New York Times, “I call complete BS.”
Trump’s tale was prompted by a question regarding Willie Brown’s past relationship with Kamala Harris, which dates back to the mid-1990s when she was a prosecutor in California. When asked if he believed this relationship had any influence on Harris’s career, Trump responded, “I know Willie Brown very well,” before launching into the helicopter story and claiming that Brown had shared “terrible things” about Harris with him.
In response, Willie Brown dismissed these allegations as “so far-fetched, it’s unbelievable,” speaking to local TV station KRON. He praised Harris, describing her as “a good friend from a long time ago, absolutely beautiful, smart as all hell, and highly successful electorally.” He added that Trump was engaging in his trademark “creative fiction.”
A spokesperson for Jerry Brown also confirmed that the former governor did not discuss Kamala Harris during the 2018 helicopter ride.
Trump’s remarks were made during a lengthy news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate, coming on the heels of a recent national poll showing Kamala Harris leading Trump among likely voters. Both Harris and Trump have been actively campaigning in battleground states alongside their vice-presidential running mates.
