Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson said in an interview with Fox & Friends that he won’t make an endorsement in this year’s presidential race, after having thrown his support to Joe Biden in the last cycle.
In an interview with Will Cain, Johnson said, “The endorsement that I made years ago with Biden was what I thought was the best decision for me at that time. And I thought back then, when we talked about, ‘Hey, I am in this position where I have some influence, and it’s my job then.’ I felt like that then. ‘It is my job now to exercise my influence and share with, ‘This is who I am going to endorse.’”
He suggested that the reason he would not endorse this cycle is because his decision to go public four years ago proved too polarizing. Donald Trump has long had close ties to WWE.
“Am I going to do that again this year? That answer is no. I’m not going to do that, because what I realized what that caused back then was something that tears me up in my guts, back than and now, which is division. And that got me. That takeaway, after that, months and months and months, I started to realize, like, ‘Oh man, that caused an incredible amount of division in our country. So I realized now, going into this election, I’m not going to do that, because my goal is to bring our country together. I believe in that in my DNA, and so in the spirit of that, there’s going to be no endorsement at all. Not that I am afraid of it at all, but I realized that in this level of influence, I keep my politics to myself, and I think it is between me and the ballot box.”
Johnson also did not rule out a presidential run of his own at some point, but said that “right now my desire and my priorities are my babies, and school drop offs and pick ups and things like that.”
Johnson did weigh in on how he thinks are going in the country right now, telling Cain, “Am I happy with the state of America right now? Well, that answer is no. Do I believe that we are going to get better? I believe in that. I’m an optimistic guy, and I believe we can get better.”
His non-endorsement in the 2024 race may be a signal that other high profile celebrities also plan to sit things out this cycle, given that the race between Biden and Trump is expected to be close and even more divisive as election day nears.
Earlier this year, Taylor Swift was the subject of wild conspiracy theories that she would use her visibility at the Super Bowl to endorse Biden, whom she endorsed in 2020. Swift has promoted get out the vote efforts on Super Tuesday and a registration drive last year, but she has not said who she was backing in the current race.
When Cain asked Johnson what was important to him “no matter its popularity,” he said, “To be real…Authenticity. We hear that word a lot, but that is important to me. I feel like, but we could go down the well here. But in today’s easy cancel culture, and cancel culture, woke culture, this culture, that culture, division, ecetera. That really bugs me, and in the spirit of that … you either succumb and be what you think other people want you to be, or you go, ‘I am going to be myself. I am going to be real. … A real answer is important and a truthful answer is important.”
He added that “fame is a superpower when used correctly. I believe we can use it to influence people, but also to influence other people in terms of being direct and being honest.”
