Donald Trump’s almost-helicopter crash may actually involve Atlantic City and an entirely different politician

Former President Donald Trump insists he and former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown were involved in an almost-helicopter crash. It’s during this alleged near-death experience that Trump says Brown supposedly mentioned “terrible things” about Vice President Kamala Harris.

Brown vehemently denies ever being in that situation with Trump and making any disparaging remarks about the vice president.

But another California politician, Nate Holden, has come out and said that while he also never criticized the vice president, the helicopter story in question involved him, not Brown. And a trip to Atlantic City.

Both Brown and Holden are Black.

Trump’s recounting of this helicopter story came during his falsehood-heavy news conference at Mar-a-Lago last week. During the conference he answered reporters’ questions for over an hour, but a vast majority of his answers featured inaccuracies and he used the venue as an opportunity to agree to the Sept. 10 ABC presidential debate, falsely claim the crowd on Jan. 6, 2021 was bigger than the audience for Martin Luther King Jr.’s peaceful “I Have a Dream” speech, and attack Harris.

Trump recalled this so-called event with Brown when a reporter asked him about Brown and Harris’ relationship (the pair dated during the 1990s). The former president said that Brown “had a big part in what happened with Kamala … maybe he’s changed his tune, but he was not a fan of hers very much at that point.”

Brown, 90, said last week: “That’s so farfetched, it’s unbelievable. I could not envision thinking of Kamala Harris in any negative way.”

Here’s what to know about Trump’s helicopter story and how Atlantic City could have been a part of it.

During his news conference at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida residence, last week, Trump said that he knows Brown “very well” and that the two men “went down in a helicopter” on their way to an unspecified location.

Trump recalled that the helicopter made an emergency landing and that both Trump and Brown thought “maybe this is the end.”

Brown told CNN that Trump’s recollection of the situation was “obviously wrong” adding “I’ve never been in a helicopter with him in my life.”

Trump has shared this story previously, writing in his April 2023 book “Letters to Trump” about the incident. Trump campaign spokesperson, Steven Cheung, posted a photo of a page in the book that features an old photo of Trump and Brown and a caption about the helicopter malfunction.

Trump writes in the caption that he and Brown knew each other for a long time and that “We actually had an emergency landing in a helicopter together. It was a little scary for both of us, but thankfully we made it.”

He adds in the book that “[Brown’s] time with Kamala Harris in retrospect turned out to be very interesting—but only he can tell that story.”

“He was doing what Donald does best, his creative fiction,” Brown said last week about Trump’s recounting of this memory.

Holden, a former city councilmember and state senator from Los Angeles, recalls the story differently. For one thing, he says he was in the helicopter and Brown wasn’t.

In an interview with Politico Friday, Holden, 95, said he was in contact with Trump and his team during the 1990s when the former president, then a developer, wanted to build on the site of the Ambassador Hotel in LA. Holden had represented the district and was in support of the project, which would have initiated construction on the historic grounds.

Holden said he met Trump at Trump Tower before traveling in a helicopter to Atlantic City to tour Trump’s Taj Mahal casino, which was brand new at the time, but closed in October 2016 after being branded as the “eighth wonder of the world” upon its opening in 1990.

The former state senator relayed specific details that he remembers from the trip including how Trump seemed to be upset that several individuals in the Trump Tower lobby greeted Holden as “senator” but did not appear to recognize the real estate developer.

The LA politician also remembers being nervous about the helicopter ride since five people, including three Trump casinoexecutives, were killed when their helicopter crashed in 1989 in New Jersey. Holden was assured that the passengers — which also included Trump’s late brother, Robert, and Barbara Res, Trump’s former executive vice president of construction and development — were in good hands.

Res wrote about the incident in her book, “All Alone on the 68th Floor” and confirmed to Politico that Holden was certainly on the helicopter.

After the pilot said they “lost some instruments,” the passengers were informed they needed to make an emergency landing. The copter encountered a lot of turbulence, but eventually they made it to the intended New Jersey airport within an hour, Res said.

Holden and Res even had lunch at the Atlantic City casino, courtesy of Trump, before heading back to New York.

“He either mixed it up,” Holden said. “Or, he made it up. This was just too big to overlook. This is a big one.”

Brown’s adamant denial of Trump’s story has contributed to yet another perplexing narrative from the former president. Some individuals originally thought Trump was confusing the San Francisco mayor with former California Gov. Jerry Brown who assessed wildfire damage in the state via helicopter in 2018.

But, “there was no emergency landing and no discussion of Kamala Harris,” the former governor said via a spokesperson.

The rebuttal of Trump’s story has seemingly left the former president angry. Trump said late last week in a phone call to a New York Times reporter that he was “probably going to sue” the publication for its coverage of the situation. Trump also insisted in the phone call that he has records of the helicopter flight — but has not yet produced those records — and claimed that they landed “in a field.”