Former President Donald Trump went after the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman on Friday as he ripped the paper’s coverage of his wild helicopter story that he dropped at his rambling Mar-a-Lago press conference.
The Republican nominee, in the presser on Thursday, declared that he once thought it was “the end” when he went “down 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 presser.
Trump — in what Haberman described as an “angry phone call” — “excoriated” the paper and insisted to her that Brown was in the helicopter with him.
“We have the flight records of the helicopter,” said Trump, who added that the aircraft landed “in a field” and he was “probably going to sue” the Times over its coverage.
The call reportedly came as Trump’s plane was diverted due to a mechanical issue before landing safely on Friday as he was on his way to a campaign rally in Bozeman, Montana.
Haberman reported that Trump mocked a Times’ request for flight records “in a sing-song voice.”
He eventually took to his Truth Social platform late Friday to slam the Times and two “failing” reporters for having “questioned” the helicopter story all while doubling down on his claim that it was Brown in the aircraft.
“So far they are about as accurate as they are with their other stories about me,” wrote Trump, who referred to Haberman as “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 post, claimed there were “logs” along with maintenance records and witnesses to the helicopter ride without providing evidence via the platform.
Brown, who Trump claimed to know “very well” when he shared his helicopter tale, told CNN’s John Berman that such an episode with Trump “never happened, period.”
“And I think my memory is probably better than his,” said Brown on Friday.