No wrestlers in the White House — yet. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson said that he’s ruled out a presidential run after years of speculation about his political ambitions.
“It’s off the table. Yes. It is off the table,” the Jungle Cruise actor, 50, said during an interview with CBS Sunday Morning set to air on Sunday, October 9. “I will say this, ’cause it requires a B-side to this. I love our country and everyone in it. I also love being a daddy.”
The former WWE star shares daughters Jasmine, 6, and Tiana, 4, with wife Lauren Hashian. He is also the father of daughter Simone, 21, whom he shares with ex-wife Dany Garcia.
The Ballers alum explained that his family is more important to him than anything else, and any kind of political career would require him to spend too much time away from them. “That’s the most important thing to me, is being a daddy, No. 1, especially during this time, this critical time in my daughters’ lives,” he told CBS’ Tracy Smith. “Because I know what it was like to be on the road and be so busy that I was absent for a lot of years in my first daughter’s [life].”
The Black Adam star has been teasing a possible presidential run for years, broaching the topic after The Washington Post ran a 2016 op-ed suggesting that he’d make a good candidate.
“A year ago, [the idea] started coming up more and more,” the Fast Five actor told GQ in May 2017. “There was a real sense of earnestness, which made me go home and think, ‘Let me really rethink my answer and make sure I am giving an answer that is truthful and also respectful.’ I didn’t want to be flippant — ‘We’ll have three days off for a weekend! No taxes!’”
When asked whether he’d consider running, the California native replied: “I think that it’s a real possibility.”
As recently as last year, the Young Rock producer said that he’d put out feelers to find out what an electoral campaign would be like. “[I’ve done] a small amount of research and analysis to see where this comes from and to see what it could look like in the future,” he told Vanity Fair in October 2021, adding that “indicators are all very positive — in, for example, 2024, and in, for example, 2028.”
In the same interview, however, he admitted that he doesn’t have a ton of expertise when it comes to lawmaking. “You know, at the end of the day, I don’t know the first thing about politics,” he explained. “I don’t know the first thing about policy. I care deeply about our country. I care about every f–king American who bleeds red, and that’s all of them. And — there’s no delusion here — I may have some decent leadership qualities, but that doesn’t necessarily make me a great presidential candidate.”
For the time being, he’s focused on the release of Black Adam, which hits theaters on Friday, October 21. The movie has been in development for more than a decade, and Johnson himself pushed to ensure the DC character got his own standalone film.
“When the first draft of the movie came to us, it was a combination of Black Adam and Shazam: two origin stories in one movie,” the action star told Vanity Fair in August. “Now that was the goal — so it wasn’t a complete surprise. But when I read that, I just knew in my gut, ‘We can’t make this movie like this. We would be doing Black Adam an incredible disservice.’”
Johnson “made a phone call,” and eventually convinced execs that the character needed his own film. Shazam, meanwhile, made his debut in 2019’s Shazam! starring Zachary Levi.
