Donald Trump mistook one black man for another in his controversial story about a helicopter nearly crashing into him, and also made a shocking joke about dark skin, it is claimed.
Nate Holden, a former Los Angeles city councilman, believes Trump is thinking of him when he describes a “near-death experience” during a helicopter ride with him around 1990.
Earlier this week, Trump said he nearly crashed while flying in a helicopter with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, who says he has never met the former president.
Holden, 95, had a relationship with Trump in the 1990s when he was trying to build on the site of Los Angeles’ historic Ambassador Hotel, which was in his district.
The former councilman, who has a photo of himself with Trump and his ex-wife Ivana on his… website – says Trump and Holden took the helicopter ride, making Trump think “maybe this was the end,” but he believes he confused him with another black politician.
“Willie is a short black guy from San Francisco. I’m a tall black guy from Los Angeles. I guess we all look alike,” Holden said with a laugh after watching Trump’s remarks at his Thursday press conference.
Donald Trump mistook one black man for another in his controversial story about a helicopter that nearly crashed into him, and told a shocking joke about dark skin, it is claimed
Nate Holden, a former Los Angeles city councilman, believes Trump is thinking of him, having taken the helicopter ride to what he describes as a “near-death experience” with Trump around 1990.
Holden said Political who met Trump near Atlantic City more than 30 years ago to tour his Taj Mahal Casino.
She took the flight with Trump, his late brother Robert, attorney Robert Freedman and former Trump Organization executive Barbara Res.
Res has now said that she too remembered that near-disastrous trip and wrote about it in her memoirs.
He said that while he had met Brown (a former San Francisco mayor and speaker of the California State Assembly who dated Kamala Harris decades ago), the man in the helicopter was Holden.
“That’s the story, okay?” he said. “No, Willie Brown.”
Res added that Trump made a joke about Holden’s skin tone around the time of the crash, telling him: “You turned white.”
However, Holden says that would be a more apt description of the former president at the time.
“He was white as snow,” he said. “And he was scared to death.”
Former Trump Organization executive Barbara Res says she created Willie Brown (pictured) but remembered the man in the helicopter with her as Holden.
Holden (pictured left) told Politico he met Trump near Atlantic City more than 30 years ago to tour his Taj Mahal Casino.
Holden said he reached out to Brown on Thursday after Trump’s news conference.
“I said, ‘Willie, did you almost have a helicopter crash with Trump, too? ’ He said, ‘No. ’ I said, ‘I was the one who almost had a helicopter crash, Willie. ’”
While he joked about Trump being confused with Brown, Holden doesn’t seem to attribute malice to Trump’s story, but wonders what happened at the time.
“Either he got it mixed up or he made it up,” Holden said. “This was too serious to ignore. It’s a serious case. Confusing Willie Brown with me? The press is looking for the real story and they haven’t found it.”
A Trump spokesman pointed to the fact that Trump had written about the incident, reportedly with Brown, in his 2023 book.
Trump faced backlash over the misremembered story when he was confronted by reporters seeking evidence.
In an “angry” phone call to the New York Times, Trump reportedly criticized the newspaper for claiming he had lied about an impending crash during a helicopter ride with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown.
NYT journalist Maggie Haberman – the paper’s star political reporter, who is said to be trusted by Trump – said Trump angrily insisted he could provide proof of the near-death experience.
Donald Trump mocked a reporter for his request for records of a helicopter ride he claimed to have taken with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown
Kamala Harris with Willie Brown, whom she dated in the mid-1990s while he was state assembly speaker and she was a prosecutor in Alameda County.
Trump insisted that his people “have the flight records of the helicopter,” the Times reported, and said he “will probably sue” the newspaper.
When the reporter asked him to show the records, Haberman said Trump “responded mockingly, repeating the request in a sing-song voice.”
Haberman added that Trump has yet to provide such records, which he says prove the helicopter landed “in a field.”
Trump told the story in response to a question during his news conference at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida on Thursday.
‘“I know Willie Brown very well. In fact, I went down in a helicopter with him. We thought maybe this was the end,” Trump said.
“We were in a helicopter, heading to a certain location, and there was an emergency landing. It was not a pleasant landing.”
A biography of Harris claims Trump sent his private plane to fly Brown and Harris from Boston to New York in 1994, when the two were dating.
However, according to Brown, he and Trump had never ridden on the same helicopter and instead he was doing his best “creative fiction.”
Republican presidential candidate Trump told reporters at a news conference at Mar-A-Lago on Thursday night that he and Brown (pictured) were on a helicopter that was forced to make an emergency landing and both men thought this “might be the end.”
“I’ve never done business with Donald Trump, let’s start with that,” said Brown, who dated Kamala Harris in 1994 and 1995. Crown 4.
“And secondly, I don’t think I would want to be on the same helicopter as him. There are too many people who have interests related to him, including people who are involved in helicopter maintenance!”
“I was doing what Donald does best, his creative fiction. He’s creative, very creative. It’s so crazy it’s unbelievable.”
Brown went on to say that the world “would have heard about it” if it had happened.
The Times theorized that Trump was referencing when he took a helicopter ride over wildfire-ravaged California with then-Governor Jerry Brown in 2018, but insists he did not confuse him with Willie Brown.
Jerry Brown also insisted that there was no danger during the flight.
“There was no emergency landing and no discussion about Kamala Harris,” Jerry Brown’s spokesman told the NYT.
Meanwhile, California Governor Gavin Newsom, who was on the helicopter with Trump and Jerry Brown, said after the news conference: “I think that’s complete nonsense.”
The Times theorized that Trump was referencing when he took a helicopter ride over wildfire-ravaged California with then-Governor Jerry Brown in 2018, but insists he did not confuse him with Willie Brown.
Trump’s account was in response to a reporter who asked about Harris’s relationship with Brown.
Brown and Harris dated in the mid-1990s, when Brown was speaker of the California State Assembly and Harris was a prosecutor in the Alameda County District Attorney’s office. During that time, Brown appointed her to two boards of directors.
After recounting the helicopter story, Trump claimed Brown had some negative things to say about the current vice president.
“But he had a lot to do with what happened with Kamala. But he… I don’t know, maybe he changed his tune. But at that time he wasn’t a big fan of her.”
Brown, now 90, also disputed that aspect of Trump’s claim on Thursday, calling it “so outlandish as to be unbelievable.”
“I couldn’t imagine thinking of Kamala Harris in a negative way. She’s a good friend from way back, an absolutely beautiful woman, very intelligent and very successful, electorally speaking,” Brown said.