A man who nearly crashed into a helicopter with Donald Trump tells POLITICO that Trump confused him with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown. The former president has repeatedly insisted it was Brown.
In an exclusive interview late Friday, former Los Angeles city councilman and state senator Nate Holden said he remembers his near-death experience well. He and others believe it happened sometime in 1990.
“Willy is a short black man who lives in San Francisco,” Holden said. “I’m a tall black man who lives in Los Angeles.”
“We all look alike,” Holden told POLITICO, laughing out loud.
Holden, 95, was in touch with Trump and his team in the 1990s when the glitzy Manhattan developer was trying to build on the site of the historic Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Holden represented the district at the time and supported the project.
In an interview, Holden said Brown claimed he was a nervous passenger on the helicopter while watching former President Trump’s press conference on Thursday.
In fact, Holden says he met Trump at Trump Tower on his way to Atlantic City, New Jersey, where they were scheduled to tour the developer’s new Taj Mahal casino. In the lobby of Trump Tower, Holden was greeted by several people as “Senator,” much to the host’s dismay.
Holden said he remembers the tycoon saying, “‘I know I own this building, but it seems like no one knows who I am. ‘”
Holden recalled being a little apprehensive about the helicopter ride, as it had just happened to be the day five people, including three senior executives from Trump’s casinos, died when their helicopter crashed over the Forked River in New Jersey in 1989.
But Holden said Trump told him they were in good hands and that they had two capable pilots. “He said, ‘Look at the sky,’” Holden said. “My God, it’s beautiful.”
Also aboard were Trump’s late brother Robert, attorney Harvey Friedman and Barbara Les, Trump’s former vice president for construction and development. Les told POLITICO on Friday that she remembers the ride well. In fact, she said she wrote about it in her book, “Alone on the 68th Floor.”
Res also remembers Brown. He liked her, and she brought him a hat from the superyacht Trump Princess, which she says he liked. But the man in the helicopter was clearly Nate Holden, she said.
She said that on that flight, as the helicopter zoomed over the water, the pilots began to manoeuvre their gear with gusto. “I could see into the cockpit through my squint, and all I could see was the copilot pumping the gear with all his might,” Res wrote in her book. Donald Trump and Robert Trump reassured Holden.
“Shortly after that the pilot informed me that he had lost some of his instruments and would have to make an emergency landing,” she wrote. “By now the helicopter was shaking like crazy.”
After considerable turbulence, they landed safely at the New Jersey airport where Trump had stored his commuter helicopter.
In an hour they arrived in Atlantic City. Holden and Les had a delicious lunch at the casino thanks to Trump and returned to New York. “We may not have done much business, but it was definitely a memorable experience,” she wrote.
Res said by phone Friday that Trump liked to joke about Holden in the helicopter. He said, “You turned white.” But she said it was Trump’s face that turned white.
“He was as white as snow,” Holden added. “And he was terrified.”
When asked for comment, a Trump campaign spokesperson would only refer to a paragraph from a New York Times article about the incident.
“(Trump) has told the helicopter story before. In his 2023 book, Letters to Trump, he published letters from several people, including Mr. Brown. In the book, Mr. Trump writes, ‘We actually made an emergency landing in the helicopter together. We were both a little scared, but thankfully we were okay.'”
Res and Holden spoke by phone Friday night, reminiscing about the Ambassador project that could have been.
“That’s the story, you know,” said Les. “There’s no Willie Brown.”
Holden also reached out to Brown on Thursday. “I said, ‘Willie, did you almost get in a helicopter crash with Trump?’ He said, ‘No.’ I said, ‘I did, Willie.’”
Before hanging up the phone with POLITICO, Holden assured the reporter that Trump never discussed Kamala Harris with anyone, or even criticized her, as Brown claimed.
“He mixed it up,” Holden said. “Or he made it up. It was too big to ignore. It was too big. You’re confusing me with Willie Brown? The press is looking for the real story, and they don’t get it. You get it.”
