A lighthearted interview found the House speaker sharing his impersonation of the president, his cordial relationship with a predecessor, and hopes to make things “right” with Elon Musk.
(Video Credit: Pod Force One)
The stakes of negotiations and advancing a legislative agenda for President Donald Trump didn’t mean that Capitol Hill was constantly cutthroat. In fact, the way House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told it, there were many human moments behind the scenes that included laughs over how the One Big Beautiful Bill came to be named.
Appearing on New York Post journalist Miranda Devine’s “Pod Force One,” Johnson recalled the meeting in the Oval Office to discuss the budget reconciliation legislation after he was prompted for an impression of the commander-in-chief.
Aping some of the familiar hand gestures and facial expressions of Trump, the speaker used his rendition of the president’s voice to say, “What are we gonna name it? What are we gonna call it?”
After passing on some suggestions from those gathered, Johnson continued, “He goes, ‘No, I just think we call it the One Big Beautiful Bill. Don’t you think that’s great? That’s so simple, it’s great, you know?”
“And he passed it around to us on a piece of paper in big bold font, One Big Beautiful Bill. And he goes, ‘Now, can we put an exclamation point?’” explained the congressman, who had to note that it wasn’t an option.
As the legislation was a point of contention between the president and former adviser Elon Musk, Johnson also explained to Devine that the world’s richest man hadn’t alerted his onetime allies in Washington, D.C. that he’d changed his number after the falling out.
“I sent him a long text message, and then his phone number changed, because after the blow-up, something happened with his,” detailed the speaker. “[Later I] realized I was sending it out into the ether somewhere, and he never read it, so I look forward to meeting with him in person. We’ve got to make that right.”
Having expressed efforts to reach out through a third party as he remained hopeful about repairing the relationship with the GOP, the lawmaker went on, “Frankly, I think the president was of that mind as well, but there’s some tension there.”
“But clearly, [Musk] got unhappy in a very short period of time. I mean, he generally knew what we were doing, and we talked about it. I mean, he knew for months, many months we worked on this, and I was keeping him apprised of it,” asserted Johnson. “The final product maybe didn’t meet all of his expectations in terms of what we’re doing, for example, with electric vehicles and the Biden mandates and all of that. But there are other things as well.”
The speaker also spoke of his relationship with California Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D), a point which found him raising President Ronald Reagan as he said, “I always admired Ronald Reagan as a happy warrior, and his kind of ethos was Reagan’s 11th commandment: you don’t speak evil of another Republican, certainly. But he was even friendly with his political foes, right?”
“She’s very kind. I try not to make enemies around here, and we have bitter policy disputes and disagreements, but it’s not personal. It shouldn’t be,” he expressed, of communicating across the aisle.
Less surprising than his cordial attitude toward Pelosi was the concern expressed by Trump not long after the then-former president caught wind of an incident that nearly cost the lives of Johnson’s two sons.
Despite both being described as “great athletes,” with the eldest having just completed his first year at the U.S. Naval Academy with an eye on joining the special forces, the speaker said both had got caught in a rip current in the Atlantic Ocean on Thanksgiving break 2023 when they had been traveling with him for fundraising, including having dinner with the president the night before.
“They got pulled far out, and they almost drowned, and my oldest son was holding his younger, 13-year-old brother up, and he almost drowned. And then the younger one almost did as well; Jack and Will. They went to the ER, had their lungs pumped. I mean, it was quite an ordeal,” detailed the father, visibly emotional. “They’re great swimmers, but the rip current was so strong that day, and they got pulled far, far out.”
“And the only reason they were saved is because a parasailer happened to be going by and saw just my youngest son’s head right before he went under, waving for help,” added Johnson, who went on to detail that Trump learned of the incident and reached out. “I didn’t even tell him … He was so alarmed by what he heard, and he said, ‘Mike, it’s like a miracle.’ I said, ‘It is. Had it not been for the parasailer, we would have lost both my sons.’”
The entire interview can be viewed below via the Pod Force One YouTube channel:
(Video Credit: Pod Force One)
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Author: Kevin Haggerty
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