House Speaker Mike Johnson’s two sons almost drowned in the ocean after attending a dinner at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate last November.
Mr. Johnson, Louisiana Republican, recounted the incident involving his two teenage sons in an interview with The Atlantic. He was meeting with donors inside a hotel close to the beach when his security detail told him something had happened.
A parasailer saw Mr. Johnson’s son Jake try to save his other son Will after a riptide swept them out. The witness alerted lifeguards, who promptly helped them to safety. The speaker arrived at the beach to find his sons getting their chests pumped, and he wound up spending hours in the emergency room.
“President Trump heard about it somehow — miraculously, this never made the news,” Mr. Johnson said in the outlet profile.
The speaker and former president discussed the incident in a conversation that focused on faith — a well-known aspect of Mr. Johnson’s life.
“He was just so moved by the idea that we almost lost them, and we talked about it at great length,” Mr. Johnson said. “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.’”