The man who nearly crashed in a helicopter with Donald Trump told Politico that Trump had him confused with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, despite the former president repeatedly claiming it was Brown.
In an exclusive interview late Friday, Nate Holden, a former city councilman and state senator from Los Angeles, said he remembers a near-death experience well, which he and others believe happened around 1990.
“Willie’s a short black guy who lives in San Francisco,” Holden said. “I’m a tall black guy who lives in Los Angeles.”
“I think we’re all alike,” Holden told POLITICO, before letting out a hearty laugh.
Mr. Holden, 95, was in contact with Mr. Trump and his team in the 1990s, when a glitzy Manhattan developer was looking to build on the site of Los Angeles’ historic Ambassador Hotel. Mr. Holden represented the district at the time and supported the project.
In an interview, Holden said, President Trump’s press conference The former president alleged Thursday that Brown was with him during the tense helicopter flight.
In fact, Holden said he met Trump at Trump Tower on his way to Atlantic City, New Jersey, where they were planning to tour a developer’s new Taj Mahal casino. In the Trump Tower lobby, several people greeted him as “Senator,” which Holden said upset the host.
“He said, ‘You know I own this building, but nobody seems to know who I am,'” Holden recalled the tycoon saying.
Holden recalled being a bit apprehensive about the helicopter ride because it had come so soon after five people, including three executives at Trump’s casinos, had been killed in a helicopter crash. Over Forked River, New Jersey, 1989.
But Holden said Trump told him they had two capable pilots and they’d be fine. “He told me to look at the sky,” Holden said. “‘Oh my god, it’s beautiful.'”
Others on board included Trump’s late brother, Robert, attorney Harvey Friedman, and Barbara Leth, Trump’s former vice president of construction and development. Leth told Politico on Friday that she remembers the ride well, too. In fact, she wrote about it in her book, “Alone on the 68th Floor.”
Les also remembers Brown. Brown had taken a liking to her, and she gifted him a hat from the Trump Princess superyacht. Les says Brown loved it. But she says the man in the helicopter was definitely Nate Holden.
During the flight, Les said the pilots began frantically adjusting the instruments as the helicopter rocked over the water. “I looked out of the corner of my eye into the cockpit and saw the co-pilot working at full speed on the instruments,” Les wrote in his book. Donald and Robert Trump reassured Holden.
“Shortly afterwards, the pilot informed us he had lost some instruments and needed to make an emergency landing,” she wrote. “By this time the helicopter was shaking violently.”
After significant turbulence, they landed safely at the New Jersey airport where Trump’s commuter helicopter is kept.
Within an hour, they arrived in Atlantic City. Holden and Les enjoyed a delicious lunch at a casino, courtesy of Trump, before returning to New York. “I may not have been able to get much done, but it was a truly memorable day,” she wrote.
In a phone interview on Friday, Mr. Leth said Mr. Trump liked to joke about Holden “going white in the face” during helicopter rides, but Mr. Leth insisted that it was Mr. Trump who went white.
“He was as white as snow,” Holden added, “and utterly frightened.”
Asked for comment, a Trump campaign spokesman referred only to a passage in a New York Times article about the incident.
“[Trump] Brown has previously told the helicopter story in his 2023 book, Letters to Trump, which includes letters to Trump from several people, including Brown. In the book, Trump writes, “We actually made an emergency landing together in the helicopter. It was a bit scary for both of us, but thankfully we were okay.”
Les and Holden spoke by phone Friday night, and they sometimes reminisce nostalgically about the ambassador project that could have come to fruition.
“That’s the story, I get it,” Les said. “There’s no Willie Brown.”
Holden also got in touch with Brown on Thursday. “I said to him, ‘Willie, were you in a helicopter crash with Donald Trump?’ and he said, ‘No.’ And I said, ‘Willie, I’m the one who did it.'”
Before hanging up the phone with Politico, Holden assured reporters that no one has gone so far as to claim that Brown has discussed, much less criticized, Kamala Harris.
“He’s either mixed it up or he’s made it up,” Holden said. “This is too big to miss. This is too big. Did you mix up Willie Brown and me? The press is after the truth, and they’re not getting it. You’re getting it.”
