We documented how, as a part of its election strategy to squeeze multiple articles out of every Donald Trump rally or public appearance, Newsmax published its usual barrage of articles on Trump’s Aug. 8 news conference at Mar-a-Lago:
- Trump: We Have Enthusiasm Behind Us, Not Harris
- Trump Says He’s Willing to Debate Harris Three Times
- Trump: Prosecuting Hillary Would Have Been Bad For Country
- Trump: Assassination Attempt Didn’t Alter Gun Rights View
- Trump Signals Interest in Influencing Federal Reserve Decisions (wire article)
As usual, no effort was made to fact-check anything Trump said. But even though it published five articles about the presser, Newsmax still omitted a lot, much of which involved him being angry, inflammatory, vain and petty. Thanks to a much less biased outlet in Mediaite, we know that Newsmax didn’t want to tell you about:
- Trump Warns of 1929-Style Depression and World War In Opening of Mar-a-Lago Presser
- ‘White Males Have Gone Through the Roof!’ Trump Boasts About How Well He’s Polling Against Kamala Harris
- ‘Give Me a Break!’ Trump Fumes After Reporter Asks About Kamala Harris’s Crowd Size
- ‘What a Stupid Question!’ Trump Rages At Reporter For Asking About His Limited Campaign Schedule
- Maggie Haberman Challenges Trump On His Claim Jan 6th Was a Peaceful Transfer of Power
- Trump Doubles Down on ‘Became a Black Person’ Attack on Kamala Harris: ‘You’ll Have to Ask Her… It’s Very Disrespectful’
- Reporter Grills Trump On ‘Scars’ From Assassination Attempt At Press Conference — Trump Misidentifies Own Earlobe
Mediaite also highlighted something Newsmax wouldn’t: a fact-check of Trump from the presser:
New York Times political reporter Maggie Haberman fact-checked former President Donald Trump’s false tale on Thursday recounting a near-death experience aboard a helicopter with Willie Brown, the former San Francisco mayor and ex-boyfriend of Vice President Kamala Harris.
The fictionalized account was told during a press conference at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. Asked about Harris’ past relationship with Brown, Trump launched into a detailed narrative about the supposed “emergency landing”, even claiming Brown had divulged “terrible things” about Harris during the ordeal.
Haberman, who frequently has consistently broken news on Trump’s past and campaigns, called out the former president on X: “Trump’s story about being in a rough helicopter landing with Willie Brown was actually with [former California Governor] Jerry Brown, and there was no rough landing. Everything about the story was false, both men said.”
And far from a perilous emergency landing, the flight in question had been uneventful, according to Governor Gavin Newsom, who was also aboard.
In a further post, Haberman added: “Three Trump casino executives were killed in a helicopter crash in 1989, an event that Trump later insinuated he was supposed to join them on, a claim some employees said was untrue.”
Those three men associated with the story hit back in a New York Times article on Friday, a spokesperson for Jerry Brown said: “There was no emergency landing and no discussion of Kamala Harris.”
Newsmax did highlight Haberman’s fact-check a couple days later in an article by James Morley III — but framed it through Trump flatly denying it even though she had on-the-record sources backing up her account:
Former President Donald Trump fired back at The New York Times Friday evening, reiterating his statement that former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown was with Trump in a helicopter that nearly crashed.
“Two Failing New York Times ‘reporters’ questioned my story about a forced landing of a helicopter, in a field, with former Mayor of San Francisco, Willie Brown, and others. First of all, it was in New Jersey, not California, and it was Willie Brown, not former Governor Jerry Brown. So far they are about as accurate as they are with their other stories about me,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.
“In an article dated April 15, 2011, ‘His Willieness dishes about his good buddy Donald Trump. I remember one time Trump sent his private jet to Boston to pick me up.’ He’s just angling for another ride in Trump’s jet (helicopter!). But now Willie doesn’t remember? No, he remembers!” Trump’s post continued.
[…]Brown dismissed Trump’s story as make-believe, telling KRON4 out of San Francisco that the incident never happened.
“I’ve never done business with Donald Trump, let’s start with that,” Brown told the outlet. “And secondly, I don’t think I’d want to ride on the same helicopter with him. There’s too many people that have an agenda with reference to him, including the people who service helicopters!”
Former Los Angeles city councilman and California state Sen. Nate Holden told Politico on Friday that it was he who was with Trump on a helicopter that made an emergency landing.
“Willie is the short Black guy living in San Francisco,” Holden told the outlet. “I’m a tall Black guy living in Los Angeles. I guess we all look alike.”
Morley then highlighted a weird pushback from the Trump campaign that “Trump had made reference to the helicopter incident the book ‘Letters to Trump,’ in which he praised Brown” — which in no way proves Trump’s side of the story.