Former President Donald Trump went after the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman as he ripped on Friday the opacity of the paper from his wild helicopter story he dropped during his extended press conference at Mar-a-Lago.
The Republican candidate told the press on Thursday that he once thought this was “the end” when he “crashed in a helicopter” with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown prior to an emergency landing.
Brown has since disputed the claim, calling Trump “obviously wrong,” while former Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden revealed to Politico that he thinks the former president was referring to him at the press.
Trump — in what Haberman described as an “angry phone call” – the paper “denounced” and insisted that Brown was in the helicopter with him.
“We have the flight data from the helicopter,” Trump said, adding that the plane landed “in a field” and that he was “probably going to sue the Times” over its reporting on it.
The call reportedly came as Trump’s plane was diverted due to a mechanical problem before landing safely on Friday while he was en route to a campaign rally in Bozeman, Montana.
Haberman reported that Trump mocked a Times request for flight data “in a sing-song voice.”
Finally, late Friday, he took to his Truth Social platform to criticize the Times and two “failing” reporters for “questioning” the helicopter story, while doubling down on his claim that it was Brown on the plane.
“So far they’re about as accurate as their other stories about me.” Trump wrotewhom Haberman called ‘Maggot Hagermann’.
“At least when I became president, the NYT apologized to their readers for their REALLY BAD REPORTING ON THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE. They’ll probably have to do that again…’
Trump, in a separate messageclaimed there were “logs” along with maintenance records and witnesses to the helicopter flight without providing evidence through the platform.
Brown, who claimed to know Trump “very well” when he shared his helicopter story: told CNN’s John Berman that such an episode with Trump “never happened, period.”
“And I think my memory is probably better than his,” Brown said Friday.