Former president Donald Trump related a dramatic story of a near-death experience he said he shared with Willie Brown, a former mayor of San Francisco, during a Thursday news conference.
“I know Willie Brown very well,” Trump said. “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.”
But Brown told local news station KRON4 that the story was “what Donald does best,” which was “his creativity — fictional,” adding that he had never done business with the former president and wouldn’t want to be in a helicopter with him.
During the news conference Trump also claimed that Brown, an influential Democrat who was also the longtime speaker of the California State Assembly, said “terrible things” about Vice President Kamala Harris. He did not say when the helicopter ride occurred. Harris and Brown dated more than 25 years ago, which has been highlighted by opponents suggesting she improperly benefited from his influence on her career (he appointed her to two state boards) — a claim Brown has rejected and that has been criticized as sexist.
When asked about the vice president, Brown told KRON4 he “could not envision thinking of Kamala Harris in any negative way” and that she was a good friend.
Trump did share a helicopter ride with then-California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) in 2018, to the fire-devastated town of Paradise. It was unclear whether Trump intended to refer to the California governor instead of the San Francisco mayor in telling his story. But in any case, their lives were not in danger, Jerry Brown told The Post.
“It was a lively ride, but an utterly safe landing,” he said in an email through his spokesperson, adding that “the subject of Harris never came up.”
Willie Brown and representatives for Trump did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A representative for Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), who was California’s governor-elect at the time and also shared the helicopter ride, said there was no flight mishap or emergency landing and that Harris was not discussed.