House Speaker Mike Johnson has opened up about how he nearly lost his two teenage sons to a rip current while on a Florida fundraising trip just weeks after he took the gavel this past fall.
In an interview with The Atlantic, Johnson, 52, recounted that he had trekked down to Palm Beach during the week of Thanksgiving to huddle with GOP donors and dine with former President Donald Trump.
The day after Johnson (R-La.), 18-year-old Jack, and 13-year-old Will broke bread with the 45th president, the new speaker was in a meeting at a beachside hotel when his security team informed him that the boys had been swept out to sea.
According to Johnson, a passing parasailer spotted Will’s head barely poking above the water and alerted lifeguards, who rode out on jet skis to snag the brothers.
By the time Johnson arrived, he told the magazine, medical personnel were pumping his son’s chests. Jack and Will ultimately spent four hours in the emergency room before being cleared to return home.
“President Trump heard about it somehow—miraculously, this never made the news,” said the Louisianan.
“He was just so moved by the idea that we almost lost them, and we talked about it at great length. 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.”
At one point in their talk, Johnson said that Trump “repeated back to me and said, ‘God—God saved your sons’ lives.’”
When contacted by The Post Tuesday, a spokesperson for Johnson confirmed the near-drowning incident, but declined to give additional details.
Johnson told the story in response to a question about whether Trump has “moral guidance” that “you would hope that everybody in power would have.”
“You know, he talks about faith,” the speaker said. “He and I’ve talked about faith.”
Trump, who was raised Presbyterian, considers himself non-denominational, and attends Christmas and Eastern services at an Episcopal church near his Mar-a-Lago home, has diligently courted evangelical Christian voters throughout his successive presidential campaigns.
Last month, the former president began selling his own endorsed version of the Good Book — the “God Bless the USA Bible.”
Johnson, an evangelical Southern Baptist, has enjoyed the support of Trump since he became speaker in October of last year, replacing the deposed Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
“Look, we have a majority of one, OK? It’s not like he can go and do whatever he wants to do,” Trump told radio host John Fredericks Monday night on Real America’s Voice.
“I think he’s a very good person,” he added of Johnson. “I think he’s trying very hard.”
