Last Thursday, Donald Trump told a story about a helicopter ride he took with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, calling it a “near death” emergency landing on a field in New Jersey. Hearing this, Nate Holden, a former Los Angeles councilman, spoke to Brown and then called Politico and gave them the real story about a helicopter trip with Trump that was forced to land at a nearby airport in 1990.
Along with Holden, I was also on that helicopter flight, along with Trump’s brother and another top executive. And this is why we were on the flight.
I was then working for Trump as his executive vice president in charge of construction and development. I oversaw construction, got permits, negotiated leases, lobbied legislatures and municipalities, met with city and state officials, community groups, etc. At that time, we were working with investors who had bought the old Ambassador Hotel in L.A., where RFK was shot. They lured Trump into becoming a part owner by agreeing to put him in charge of everything and pay him a fee for construction costs and a large commission on sales and leases.
The year before, 1989, Donald was approached with an offer to buy the Ambassador and its 24 acre parcel outright. He sent me out there to look at it and let him know if I thought it was right for us. I actually did not think he was all that serious because he would have looked at it himself or sent someone higher on the ladder than me.
It was totally beat up and you wouldn’t even think of saving it but the property was magnificent. Trump would want to build a massive mixed use project here, but the problem was the location. It was in Mid-Wilshire, a part of L.A. that is not at all, to be kind, high end. Not a Trump location. I met the owners, went to their house, had dinner and went back to New York and told Trump it was not a Trump site.
Several months later, Trump was approached by his very good friend, and the most important zoning lawyer in New York, asking him to meet with the people who actually bought the property, a group with English, Irish and American investors.
One of the group members was embarrassingly in awe of Donald and they asked him to join the partnership as a partner and also to be the developer and the company would reimburse all expenses and give Trump a 6% markup on everything from the cost of the architects, to my salary, to the construction and as a fee on all sales and rentals. He could not resist a deal like that and decided he would build Trump City West with, of course, the world’s tallest building.
So I set out to build a team to construct a massive 6 million-square-foot project on the 24 acres.
The L.A. school board wanted to put a school there. Using eminent domain, it condemned part of the site, and valued it at $50 million, but still needed to get the $50 million from the state. I lobbied state officials including Brown, who was then speaker of the state Assembly, to support our efforts to prevent it. We were to appear at a hearing and argue against the funding. Brown was essential to us and I developed a relationship with him. I gave him a cap from the Trump Princess and Trump allowed Brown to use his private jet.
Holden, the L.A. councilman, was going to be our most important speaker at the hearing.
Just before the hearing, I flew with Holden to Trump Tower to meet Donald to talk strategy. Upon arrival we were told Trump did not have time to meet there and we were to accompany him on a helicopter flight to Atlantic City and talk on the flight.
Soon after we took off, the copter began shaking. To reassure Holden, someone started explaining why there was turbulence where the Hudson River met the Long Island Sound, and I was thinking what nonsense, and watching the co-pilot furiously pushing an instrument back and forth.
Soon the copter really started shaking and the pilot announced that we would have to land at the nearest airport. Everyone on board was scared. I was mostly watching the others, including Trump, who was terrified. The pilot was very calm and that reassured me. I had made emergency landings before. I never thought our lives were in danger, but it was scary. We landed safely and went to AC on Trump’s commuter copter. Laughing at him, Trump said Holden, a Black man, turned white. It was Donald who turned white.
We never really got to talk about the Ambassador project.
Res is author of “Tower of Lies: What My Eighteen Years of Working With Donald Trump Reveals About Him.”