House Speaker Mike Johnson busts out Trump impression at GOP convention prayer breakfast
MILWAUKEE — House Speaker Mike Johnson broke out a spot-on impression of Donald Trump on the final day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee — as he recounted how the former president comforted him after a horrific family near-tragedy
In his remarks at the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s “God & Country Breakfast” Thursday, Johnson (R-La.), 52, told of a call he got from the 78-year-old former commander-in-chief after the speaker’s two teenage sons nearly drowned in Palm Beach, Fla., last Thanksgiving.
“President Trump heard the story, so he called me the next night and he said, ‘Mike’ — I’m not going to do it in his voice [but] that’s how I hear it,” Johnson said, imitating Trump’s voice and open hand gestures.
“He said, ‘Mike, Mike’ — no, I should not do it,“ the House speaker continued, trying to resist turning his prayer breakfast speech into an “SNL” skit.
However, after receiving some encouragement from the crowd, Johnson further morphed into Trump.
“Mike, Mike — those beautiful, perfect, American boys … we almost lost them, Mike. What happened?” the House speaker said in his Trump persona. “Tell me what happened. It’s a miracle.”
Johnson, an evangelical Southern Baptist, said he explained to Trump that 18-year-old Jack and 13-year-old Will only survived after being swept out to sea when a passing parasailer spotted Will’s head barely poking above the water and alerted lifeguards, which he attributed to divine providence.
“He was so moved by that,” Johnson said of the former president’s reaction, noting that Trump is very close with his own children.
Trump brought up the harrowing incident for the next several weeks, in every conversation he had with the House speaker, Johnson said.
“You wouldn’t have even had a Thanksgiving, Mike. You’d never have another Thanksgiving. I mean, think of it,” the father of five said in a full-on Trump impression, which included lowering and tilting his head, and bringing his chest closer to the top of the podium.
“God saved your boys,” Trump told Johnson, according to the House speaker.
Johnson said when he reached out to Trump after Saturday’s shooting in Butler, Pa., which left the GOP nominee for president wounded, one man dead and two others critically injured, the former president told him, “God saved your boys and he saved me. Almost didn’t make it there.”
The former president is slated to be the final speaker at the GOP convention Thursday night.