House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said his sons almost drowned after he had dinner with former President Trump at his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida last fall, according to a new profile on Johnson by The Atlantic.
The Speaker visited Palm Beach, Fla., the week of Thanksgiving for a fundraiser, and he and his sons had dinner with the former president while on the trip, according to The Atlantic. The following day, Johnson’s security detail came into a conference room when he was meeting with donors at a hotel near the beach and told him “Mr. Speaker, we need you right now.”
According to The Atlantic profile, a riptide had swept out the Speaker’s sons. Johnson told the publication that one of his teenage sons, Will, was drowning, and the other, Jack, attempted to get his brother to the surface. Will’s head was seen by a parasailer, who then was able to alert lifeguards who got on jet skis to get the boys. The Speaker came to the beach and discovered medical personnel surrounding his children, with the boys’ chests being pumped. The boys were in the emergency room for four hours before being allowed to go home.
“President Trump heard about it somehow—miraculously, this never made the news,” Johnson said, per The Atlantic.
Trump and Johnson talked on the phone after the incident, according to The Atlantic.
“He was just so moved by the idea that we almost lost them, and we talked about it at great length,” Johnson continued, per The Atlantic. “And we talked about the faith aspect of that, because he knows that I believe that, you know—that God spared the lives of my sons. That’s how I understand those events, and we talked about that.”
“And he said, he repeated back to me and said, ‘God—God saved your sons’ lives,’” Johnson added.