Kamala Harris’ one-time boyfriend and political mentor Willie Brown claims he has a photo of her aboard Donald Trump’s airplane.
The 90-year-old former San Francisco mayor claims to have first introduced Harris to Trump in the 1990s, according to Politico. Brown says he still has a picture of them together on board her future presidential election rival’s jet.
At the time the picture was taken, Brown and “a few other associates” had been in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Brown was speaking at Harvard University, according to Politico. Trump sent his plane to take the group to Teterboro, New Jersey because he reportedly wanted to speak to Brown for advice about building property in Los Angeles.
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Brown, who served as the California State Assembly speaker between 1980 and 1995, says Trump was acting on the advice of casino tycoon Steve Wynn. “Wynn told Trump that ‘If I was doing anything in California I’d talk to Willie Brown because anybody else will take your money and do nothing,’” Brown told Politico.
He added that while Harris did not attend the meeting with Trump, a photograph exists of the Californians on board the plane. “I have the picture,” he said with a smile, according to Politico.
The outlet also credits Brown with arranging the infamous check Trump wrote to Harris for re-election campaign as California attorney general in 2011.
This is the private Boeing 727 Donald Trump owned at the time the photo was taken. He now has a private Boeing 757.
Andrew Milligan - PA Images/Getty ImagesBrown and the now-vice president dated between 1994 and 1995 toward the end of his speakership. During their relationship, Brown gave Harris a BMW and she traveled with him to Paris and attended the Academy Awards, according to journalist Dan Morain’s 2021 book, Kamala’s Way: An American Life.
The book also seemingly mentions the same Trump Force One trip, claiming Harris was with Brown when Trump called about a Los Angeles “hotel project.” Trump “sent his jet to Boston to fly Brown and his friends, Harris included, to New York City,” Morain writes. “The jet was gilded, had valuable paintings on its cabin walls, and had notes left for Trump by his then-wife, Marla Maples.”
That earlier account also notes that while Brown and Trump had lunch together at the Plaza Hotel, the L.A. deal never came to fruition, and “Trump and Harris likely did not meet then.”
