The other problem with Donald Trump’s helicopter ride story

Donald Trump received effusive praise from allies and sympathizers alike for his willingness to hold an off-the-cuff news conference Thursday in a different part of his house. Here’s a guy who can simply invite in reporters and answer questions for an hour without preparation; why can’t Vice President Kamala Harris do the same?

One reason, of course, is that Trump is not now and has not ever been terribly worried about the product of his riffing. Sure, he almost invariably gets himself into trouble by disgorging false claims or toxic disparagements, but it’s easy enough to bury those with more disgorgement. It is the way; it has always been the way.

But this habit now unfolds in an environment where, thanks in part to Trump’s own energetic efforts, Americans are attuned to signs of mental decline or confusion. A story about, say, a near-deadly helicopter ride with a famous California politician — as Trump presented on Thursday — isn’t as easily dismissed as it might have been. Is this Trump making stuff up? Or is this Trump confusing different parts of different stories? Trump has a cover that President Joe Biden never did: that history of bizarre disgorgements.

The helicopter story was certainly bizarre. This is what Trump said, verbatim:

The “her” being referenced is Harris, with whom Brown, the former speaker of California’s state assembly, was once romantically involved. We’ll come back to that.

This story has many of the trademarks of a Trump invention. The “know him well” after a brief encounter, just as he once said that he got to know Russian President Vladimir Putin very well because … they were both featured in segments on the same episode of “60 Minutes.” Then there’s the emotional exaggeration. No burly men crying on Trump’s shoulder here but, instead, a brush with death, the sort of thing that might engender a strong sympathetic response from the listener.

Except that there’s no evidence it’s true. Multiple news outlets have tried to figure out what Trump was talking about, since no one had ever heard this story before. Brown told the San Francisco Chronicle he’d never been on a helicopter with Trump and told a local television station that the story was “fictional.” This tracks — an almost-crash of a helicopter carrying both Brown and Trump would have made the news. When Brown was in a helicopter that had a rough landing in 2004, sans Trump, it earned media coverage.

Maybe Trump was thinking of former California governor Jerry Brown, the New York Times speculated, though the two Browns share some striking dissimilarities in appearance. Trump did ride in a helicopter with the former governor, though it didn’t almost crash. Or maybe Trump was thinking of a time Brown rode on his plane, as Politico reported? Or maybe he was simply adding exotic new details to an old story he once told about how he almost boarded a helicopter that did crash, killing several Trump Organization executives. (He didn’t almost board it.)

One element of this story that’s worth noting is how, in broad strokes, it mirrors the story that led to the demotion of former NBC anchor Brian Williams — a demotion that Trump energetically celebrated.

As you may recall, Williams had claimed that while in Iraq during the war he was riding in a helicopter that had been forced to land after being struck by a rocket-propelled grenade. That didn’t happen, though the helicopter may have come under fire from small arms and was forced to land due to a incoming sandstorm. NBC pulled him from its flagship nightly news broadcast in early 2015 and suspended him for six months.

When word of the suspension came down, Trump confidently predicted first that NBC host Chuck Todd would replace Williams and, 15 minutes later, that Rosie O’Donnell would. A few months later, Trump announced his presidential candidacy. NBC, which had partnered with Trump on “The Apprentice,” severed its relationship following the comments he made about immigrants during his campaign launch.

Williams eventually returned to the air, hosting a late-night news show on MSNBC. The program was often critical of Trump during his presidency, prompting the then-president to repeatedly target Williams — and to highlight the story about the Iraq War helicopter.

“Lyin’ Brian Williams of MSDNC, a Concast Scam Company, wouldn’t know the truth if it was nailed to his wooden forehead,” Trump wrote on social media in early 2020. “Remember when he lied about his bravery in a helicopter? Totally made up story. He’s a true dummy who was thrown off Network News like a dog.”

That same day, he posted a video of news coverage of the Williams scandal.

It has long been the case that Trump is immune to hypocrisy. But the similarity here is striking: Williams lied about a brush with death in a helicopter? He made up a story for effect? Heaven forfend.

But now we circle back to the reason Trump told the story: to imply that he was close with Willie Brown and, therefore, that Trump could be trusted when he says that Brown offered disparaging comments about Harris. The two survived a brush with death! No wonder they opened up about their past relationships.

Williams was demoted by NBC News because his story eroded the audience’s confidence in his presentations. His was a position of influence and authority, and his exaggeration put that authority and the network’s authority at risk. Trump understood and amplified this.

So what about his helicopter story?