Donald Trump says he went down in a helicopter – but it ‘never happened’
President Donald Trump recently recalled the time he survived a helicopter emergency landing with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown – but it apparently never happened.
After Trump recounted the tale in Mar-a-Lago, Brown said he had ‘never been on a helicopter with Trump’
He told the San Francisco Chronicle: ‘You would have known if I had gone down on a helicopter with Trump.’
Trump recounted the story in an attempt to slam Kamala Harris, who briefly dated Brown in the 1990s.
Trump claimed the former mayor told him ‘terrible things’ about her.
Most recently, Trump said of the incident: ‘I know Willie Brown very well. In fact, I went down in a helicopter with him. We thought maybe this was the end.’
Trump also wrote of the alleged incident in 2023: ‘I knew Willie Brown a long time ago. He was a hot politician and had a great ‘way.’ We actually had an emergency landing in a helicopter together.
‘It was a little scary for both of us, but thankfully we made it.’
Hearing of Trump’s claims, Brown said the whole story was false. He added: ‘You know me well enough to know that if I almost went down in a helicopter with anybody, you would have heard about it.’
California Governor Gavin Newsom was also on the flight, and laughed at Trump’s recollection, adding: ‘I call complete BS.’
Yesterday, however, Trump’s plane did make an emergency landing ahead of a rally he was holding.
The unexpected landing was due to a mechanical issue and not linked to a security issue of any sort, said the Secret Service.
Trump’s deputy director of communications, Margo Martin, shared a video on X (formerly Twitter) just before 5.30pm of Trump from inside his plane.
‘I just landed in a really beautiful place, Montana, so beautiful flying over, and you just look down, and that’s the way it’s supposed to be,’ Trump said in the video.
He did not address the plane issue.
The Trump campaign did not immediately comment on the incident.
Trump’s plane was supposed to touch down in Bozeman, which is more than 100 miles away from Billings.
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