Trump's Helicopter Ride With Emergency Landing Never Happened, Says Willie Brown.

Former President Donald Trump recounted a story to reporters on Thursday about being involved in a helicopter emergency landing that almost crashed with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown.

During a meandering press conference Thursday riddled with false and misleading statements, Trump recalled riding as a passenger in the chopper with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown when it was forced to make an emergency landing, in a near-death experience. The comments were in response to a question about a relationship between Brown and Vice President Kamala Harris three decades ago.

“I know Willie Brown very well. In fact, I went down in a helicopter with him. We thought maybe this is the end. We were in a helicopter going to a certain location together, and there was an emergency landing,” Trump told reporters gathered at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida for his first news conference since the Democratic ticket was announced.

“This was not a pleasant landing, and Willie was, he was a little concerned. So I know him, I know him pretty well. I mean, I haven’t seen him in years,” Trump continued.

Brown, however, rejected Trump’s account as “obviously wrong” during a phone call later Thursday with CNN, saying: “I’ve never been in a helicopter with him in my life.”

“He is trying his best to get some way to degrade Kamala,” the former mayor also said of Trump and his Democratic rival for the presidency. “There is no reason why her name ought to be mentioned anywhere near his lies, period.”

Trump told the New York Times he had records to back his claim, but he has not produced them.

It appeared Trump had confused Brown with the former California Governor Jerry Brown, during the press conference, who shared a helicopter with Trump in 2018 to survey wildfire damage, and no emergency landing was reported.

Current Gov. Gavin Newsom was also on the aircraft. A spokesperson for the Democrat, Izzy Gardon, said Friday there was no problem with the flight, no emergency landing, and no conversation about Harris.

Adding to the mystery, a former Los Angeles city council member, 95-year-old Nate Holden, said that it was, in fact, he who was with Trump aboard the helicopter.

“Willie is the short Black guy living in San Francisco,” Holden stated. “I’m a tall Black guy living in Los Angeles. I guess we all look alike.”

It was the latest apparent instance of Trump misstating names or telling anecdotes that fail to hold up to scrutiny — in this case, to disparage Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee.

From Mar-a-Lago, the former president dramatically recalled a story about almost crashing on a flight while traveling with Willie Brown, who briefly dated Vice President Kamala Harris several decades ago.

Trump claimed that Brown had made critical comments about Harris, but the former mayor refuted those remarks, stating that he was always on good terms with his former protégée, even after their breakup.

Brown, a longtime Democratic power broker who also served as the California State Assembly speaker, told the San Francisco Chronicle after Trump’s press conference that he was never in a helicopter with the former president.

“You would have known if I had gone down on a helicopter with Trump,” he told the newspaper. He also denied that he had ever said anything disparaging about Harris to Trump.

Trump doubled down on the story Friday, claiming he had not confused the former San Francisco mayor with the former California governor. “First of all, it was in New Jersey, not California, and it was Willie Brown, not former Governor Jerry Brown,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.

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