House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) performed an impersonation of former President Donald Trump at a Republican National Convention (RNC) event on Thursday, recounting an earlier conversation with the GOP candidate.
Johnson recalled a conversation he had with the former president after two of the speaker’s sons nearly drowned while swimming off the coast of Florida in November. Faith and Freedom Coalition Event He imitated Trump’s voice and waved his hands as he spoke.
“But we went away and we went back to Louisiana to recover and President Trump heard about it. So he called me the next night and said, ‘Mike.’ I’m not going to say it in his voice, because that’s what it sounded like to me. Sorry,” he said, drawing laughter from the audience.
“Oh, sounds disappointing!” he added.
Johnson told the audience he “shouldn’t” do the impersonation, but when they continued to laugh he agreed to do it.
“Let me just say this: He says, the first thing that came to my mind was, ‘Mike, Mike! Those beautiful, perfect American boys. Mike, we almost lost them! What happened?'” he said, impersonating Trump.
That impression continued as the speaker recounted his conversations with Trump, in which he said the former president continued to ask about his sons in the weeks following the November attacks.
“He would always start our conversations with him and bring it up. He was so touched that we almost said … ‘Mike, you wouldn’t even have had Thanksgiving. You’d never have had Thanksgiving again,'” Johnson said. Saidand continued to imitate Trump’s voice.
The House Speaker previously spoke about the incident involving his two sons, saying Trump was “touched by the idea that we almost lost them.”
He said his two sons, ages 18 and 13, were swept away by an undertow while swimming off the coast of Palm Beach. A lifeguard on a jet ski rescued the boys, who spent several hours in the emergency room after the accident.
Johnson said Thursday that both of his sons are now doing well. He said Trump told him Sunday that God had saved him after escaping an assassination attempt on Saturday when a gunman aimed at the former president, wiping a bullet from his ear.
“He said, ‘God saved your boys. God saved me. I almost didn’t get there,'” Johnson said Thursday.
