Speaker Mike Johnson has shared the touching message Donald Trump shared with him shortly after a scary incident where the congressman’s two sons almost drowned.

Shortly after being elected speaker in October 2023, Johnson and his family went on vacation in Florida when he got an urgent notice from his security detail. 

‘Mr. Speaker, we need you right now,’ Johnson’s team told him, according to the speaker’s recollection of the incident in a report from The Atlantic. 

The Republican had been on vacation in Palm Beach for a fundraiser and decided to bring his family with him when the near-tragedy struck. 

As the speaker was busy with meetings with Trump and others at Mar-a-Lago, Johnson’s two sons, Jack, 19 and Will, 14, both one year younger at the time, got caught in a vicious rip tide while swimming at the beach. 

‘At the time, I had a senior in high school, Jack, and Will, my middle school son, and they went with me on the trip to Mar-a-Lago,’ Johnson told Lara Trump on her Fox News show My View.

‘My boys were out on the beach,’ the speaker shared, seemingly emotional while recounting the story. ‘They got caught in a rip time and pulled far out to sea the Atlantic.’

‘They’re great swimmers, great athletes, but this was more than they could handle.’

Speaker Mike Johnson pictured at Mar-a-Lago with Trump and his sons, Jack (L) and Will

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., pictured with his wife, Kelly, and children, from the left: Hannah, Abigail, Will and Jack

Johnson posing with his family at a baseball game

Continuing on, the most powerful member of Congress noted how his eldest, Jack, now a student at the U.S. Naval Academy, was willing to sacrifice his life for his younger brother.

‘My older son went under to hold his younger brother up,’ Johnson said. ‘He almost lost his life.’

‘Both of them almost drowned,’ Johnson quickly followed up. 

That day grace came in the form of a parasailor, the Republican leader, a devout Christian, described. 

‘The only reason they were saved is because a parasailor happened to be going by and seeing my 14 or 13-year-old son at the time, his head crying out for help,’ Johnson told the Fox host.

After the parasailor spotted the boys, they informed the lifeguards who rushed to save the speaker’s sons on jet skis. When Johnson arrived to the beach, first responders were pumping his sons’ chests. 

The speaker and his family reportedly spent four hours in the emergency room, though both boys ended up being ok and did not suffer from permanent damage. 

Then, unprompted, Trump called the speaker.

Johnson with his family at the Capitol

The speaker and Trump share a close relationship. Johnson has proved to be a reliable leader in Congress for the president’s top priorities

‘As soon as we were home, phone rang the president, and I had not told him about it, but he called,’ Johnson told Lara Trump. 

‘He said, ‘Mike, I can’t believe I heard what happened.’ Johnson recalled. ‘He said, ‘You know, that’s a miracle.”

Less than one year later, after the president was shot while campaigning in Butler, Pennsylvania, Johnson said he called Trump and brought up the story involving his sons. 

‘Well, fast forward to the first shooting event in Butler, Pennsylvania, I spoke to President Trump shortly after that, and I reminded him of that miraculous event with my sons down in Florida.’

‘I said, sir, just as the God saved my boys he saved you as well, and that’s not luck or coincidence, that’s providence,’ the speaker continued. 

‘I don’t believe in luck or coincidence. I know that God saved my sons, and we talked about how that was kind of a miraculous thing.’